Storm International Blog

Perceptions of Maintenance

paul — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 05:58:00 -0500

When the word Maintenance is used in most Companies, most people assume that this means Engineers, Mechanics or Electricians only. In reality, this assumption is a long way from what Effective Maintenance is really about! Most shopfloor Operators working regularly with machinery are capable with a little basic training of becoming proficient in understanding certain Maintenance skills.

Most experienced Operators understand how their particular machine works, but are they thinking about Maintenance? and How important their contribution is? probably not.

The reason for not thinking about Maintenance is purely lack of understanding and training.

The first thing to consider is How much time and effort would you be prepared to invest in your Operators to educate them in basic Maintenance activities?

Secondly What are the benefits of upskilling the Operators?

Basic Maintenance Skills

1. Cleaning - Train people to Inspect as they clean, educate them on what defects are

2. Senses - Explain how to detect problems by using their senses, Touch,Smell,Look,Listen and even taste

3. Lubrication - Train people to lubricate, explain the importance of lubrication

The advantages of having a workforce that understands the term Maintenance and how everyone has a role to play are as follows:

1. Highly skilled Engineers and Electricians see a reduction in breakdowns, therefore it allows them more time to concentarte on Preventative and Preditive Maintenance

2. Operators start to own the machines as opposed to just running them

3. Efficiencies increase with minimum investment

Effective Maintenance is only achieved by involving everyone, it has to be a team effort. Having a well developed Maintenance strategy is key to successful manufacturing.

Shift in Economic Power to the East

shah_alam — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:49:00 -0500

We read about how the 21st Century will be dominated by China and India with their economic growth outstripping those of the West. However, they are not the only ones who are going through rapid growth and expansion of their economies. For the last 3 months I have been in Turkey and travelling in and around Istanbul as well as Bursa. What I see here is what is going on in South and South-East Asia. The economy here is vibrant with a young educated population. Even though of the 78 million people a vast majority are employed in the blue collar sector, there is an increasing number of people coming out of universities with degrees. I have been talking to young graduates who are just entering the jobs market and they are patriotic, determined and very confident in their abilities and they have to offer the world and especially to Turkey. Most of the youngsters I have come across speak English as their second language, many have travelled to Western Europe and beyond. I see during the weekends in Istanbul and during the week in Bursa many people dining out and some weekends it is hard to get tables at restaurants without a booking. I see the cars being driven around Bebek, Ortakoy and Taksim in Istanbul. Premium range vehicles are a common site, with Range Rover Evoques and Sports, BMWs and Mercedes a plenty. There are more retail banks than I count on my fingers. Many Western European companies have manufacturing bases here to serve their customers without having to go to the Far East. Fiat, Renault and foundries making engine parts for the likes of JCB, Ford and Caterpillar. Turkey also has the second largest army in Nato and is a key member playing a pivotal role balancing the powers in the Middle East. This in itself will draw military investment from the US and its own internal military spending to manage the borders it has with 8 coutnries. In its current state of economic growth of approximately 10% per annum it is in a strong position to choose whether to be part of the EU. I am sure the countries leaders are looking across to Greece and thinking do we really want to join a rag-tag bunch of economies and subsidise the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain)of Europe. Turkey is one of the rising stars of the global economy and other nations in the region would do well to watch its growth and prominence on the global stage

Cronyism is bad for business

shah_alam — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:54:00 -0500

The Webster's online dictionary definition of cronyism is: "partiality to long-standing friends, especially by appointing them to positions of authority, regardless of their qualifications" I have heard of this being prevalent in politics, both in free states and not-so-free states. From the corridors of Whitehall to the rooms of the Politburo this sort of favoritism is not uncommon. I have also heard of it happening within corporations, but I had never come across it or experienced it. Recently, I came across a situation where this was applied in my full view and in such a blatant manner that I was shocked to my core. The environment is one of pure performance and meritocracy where there is no room for such wayward appointments. I watched and observed and learned how such appointments can be disastrous for all parties involved. I witnessed ineptitude, arrogance, ignorance and pure failure at performing the task at hand. Then I saw the lack of responsibility and accountability in order to rectify the situation. However, the biggest issue was the cover up of the mistakes, errors and failures. The house of cards when it eventually fell, led to embarassment, shame and loss of revenue and reputation by more than one party. The funny thing is that the truth will always come out, it is the one thing that is hardest to suppress, if not today nor tomorrow, one day it will come out and the damage is limitless. A very important lesson has been learnt by many and I trust many of us out there in the corporate world will pay to better judgement and blow the whistle when faced with such situations. The same goes for nepotism, take a lot at the scions of Murdoch at News International in the UK, one needs to say no more.

Said Agil Baaghil will be signing his book, "The Power of Belonging"

Admin — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 10:42:00 -0500

Sept 7, 2011 - Said Agil Baaghil will be signing his book, "The Power of Belonging" today from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00pm @ Machias campus Power Hall of the University of Maine. So if you live in Maine you should go, it is worth while to meet the man.

Happy Holidays

Admin — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 09:42:00 -0500

We are here ending another year and going into the second decade of the 21st century. The world still faces uncertainty in terms of economic stability, political leadership and social wellbeing. We are in a position where terrorist threats are ever present, our leaders in the leading industrial nations are reluctant to make tough decisions and people are increasingly looking for security in their jobs and providing for their families. We've also had an unprecedented year of climate change effects and natural disasters. Right now Europe is in the grip of a winter like no other and is losing billions due to transport chaos. It took me personally two days to get from London to Munich and then a further - almost- twenty fours to get from London to South Carolina.

So what are we to do? No matter where you or what tough times you are having, there is always someone who is in a needier or desperate position. Someone somewhere is struggling and during this time of the year you may be faced with situations where someone could do with a helping hand, a lift by car getting them closer to their destination, money to help someone buy some food, contributing to keep a family housed. It is during our toughest times that we can extend our hands and help our fellow man. Helping in our community or half-way across the world, is help, and if we band together it is one step closer to creating a better and prosperous world.

On this note I would like to wish all my colleagues, friends, family, clients and strangers who I have briefly touched or been touched by a very Merry Christmas, seasons greetings and a prosperous New Year.

Shah Alam

Lack Of Leadership

Admin — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:09:00 -0500

It's amazing how many companies lack leadership, it is prevalent all over the world. Leadership could simply mean making a decision to empower people. Leadership could be a simple matter of communicating strategy. However, when decisions are not made nor a vision provided then people become disillusioned. One of the symptoms is the start of the infamous rumour mills, gossips fly like arrows, mid-level managers take initiatives themselves to do something, communicate anything. This creates confusion , empire building, job protectionism and eventually the good apples leave.

When you see this happening first hand it makes you cringe. Does lack of leadership mean someone is unable to make a decision or are they fearful of their decision?

Fear is an unfounded emotion, and a common acronym for it is False Expectations Appearing Real.

A true leader would make a decision, announce a way forward and live with the consequences. A true leader would allay the fears of his people, guiding them through the bad time and bring them out the other end. A true leader would believe in management by walking the floors, talking to the people, encouraging debate, creativity and action. A true leader would encourage further development of his people through training and continuous learning.

These are some actions a leader would consider and apply, however it is sad when people cry out for leadership but do not get it. What does this cost in wasted resources and potential lost revenues.

Leadership can make or break a business, so if you are a leader what are you going to do different today to make a difference in your organisation?

Shah Alam

Man in the Mirror

shah — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:26:00 -0500

Good afternoon all,

When was the last time you took a really good look at yourself? When was the last time you asked yourself what value do I add to what I do? Am I the best that I can be? Am I the person who people look up to or do they avoid me like the plague?

You may be asking why should you ask these questions of yourself and what is the purpose? Well, my point is that I do not believe many of us receive feedback on a regular basis from our colleagues, peers and managers. Feedback that would allow us to grow and become excellent at what we do and who we are when we interact with people. I believe in the continual growth and without feedback and self-reflection growth is stunted.

Many people believe that they are the "dogs bollocks", and English expression exemplifying brilliance at whatever the subject matter at hand. This type of egotistical thinking can and does lead to lethargy, arrogance and the ultimately failure. Many people are scared to provide feedback even in a constructive way for fear of seen to be critical and hurting someone's feelings. Most of us do not even ask for feedback and in the event that we do get it we become defensive and start arguing with the person providing the feedback. What this does is that the provider of feedback will not be so willing to do so in the future.

Self reflection is another methodology that can be utilized to see where were are compared to where we think we are. To continually grow we must change and to change we must step out of the excessively used cliche of a box and look from without to what is happening within. So when we stand there looking within it may be also beneficial to ask a trusted colleague to look in with you and give you some critical feedback. Questions like, what could I have done differently? What could I have done better? Did I get the result I wanted? If not what could I do differently next time?

Whilst you ask these questions your companion could also interject with thoughts of their own that could add a different perspective. It takes a very big person to be able to do this on a continuous basis, and the bigger a person becomes the more self reflection they need to step up to the next level. Don't get me wrong most people are not up for this challenge, even though they lack no resources to become the best at what they do.

In my opinion everyone has the capacity to draw from within strength, resources, creativity to excel at their vocation and become a true leader, but many fail to do so, and most of them fail because they do not recognize where they go wrong and take corrective action. Corrective action usually comes to late in the form of getting fired or not being hired, losing friends, colleagues and supporters in the process.

Shah Alam

Seeing Red

shah — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 09:50:00 -0500

Hey Readers,

What makes you see red? What are the things that really get up your nose and make you lose control? Well I had one of my 'red' moments over the weekend. I had been away for two weeks and I had left my car parked in my private parking space. Let me emphasise 'private', the parking spot is part of the land belonging to my property.

On Friday night I get a taxi in from London City Airport and when I get home I find a car blocking access onto the street for my car. I decide I will stay calm and hopefully the car will be moved. Following morning the car is still there, so I stick a notice on the offenders car windscreen stating "move the car or it will be towed". By 12 noon the car was still there and I really needed to get out and run some errands. I called my brother to see if I could move my car out through a gap between the offending car and another parked car. As my brother arrived in his car I walked over to my parked car and the offending vehicle owner was there. The first thing he said to me was "Did you put this note on my car?" I said yes and explained to him why. He retorted that I should be nice when I speak to him.

I immediately saw red. Firstly, this guy had blocked my parking space on several occassions before and plus he was committing the violation yet asks me to be nice. I continued to explain to him that my space was my property and that the space was marked in white lettering as 'PRIVATE'.

Eventually he moved his car and I drove off.

Upon reflection when I calmed down I realised that I should have stayed calm and made my point more objectively. Even though my incident did not become ugly, how often does it become so?

I then thought how often do we 'lose our rag' in business and professional circumstances where it costs money, hurts people and does long term damage. Upon further reflection I realised that I should be more of a 'peacemaker' and a 'builder of bridges' and relationships. Success comes from who you know, because potentially you can be providing a service or a product to anyone and everyone.

People can open doors or slam them shut, people can make or break your product, people can talk ill of you or praise you.

So when you see red next, what are you going to do? I know what I am going to try and do.

Shah Alam

Security, Security, Where for art thou Security

shah — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 08:48:00 -0500

Hi Readers,

There I was on a weekend trip to the island of Mallorca in the Mediterranean. I was super prepared travelling with a carry-on that contained my sandals, shorts, jeans, fresh underwear and toiletries all adhering to current global airport security requirements.

I checked in online to save the hassle of doing so at the airport, which in this case was Munich, Germany. My flight was via Barcelona, Spain with a two hour layover and then onto Palma De Mallorca.

At Munich the security was as expected, with belt off, watch off, jacket off, laptop out and walk through the scanner. No beeping so all clear and my possessions were kosher too.

However, I was only asked to show my boarding pass to the attendant at the x-ray machine but no passport. I boarded the plane with only the boarding card being scanned with no requirement for the passport.

At Barcelona airport I wandered around the retail malls of the airport and took some refreshments before boarding the flight to my final destination. Again no passport or ID card required only my boarding card. Having only carry-on luggage I walked straight out of the airport in Palma again without any border control.

Having had a wonderful, albeit short weekend on this sunny isle I departed back for Munich. At Palma the only person who looked at my passport was the check-in attendant. At the security checkpoint only my boarding card was requested but my 100ml liquids bag was not checked or required to be out of my carry-on bag. I boarded the plane with only my boarding card being requested.

My return journey was via Madrid Barajas which in my view is a horrible airport for a capital city. The flight from Palma was delayed and thus I had less than an hour to get to my Munich flight. However, in Palma they could not give me a boarding card for the Munich leg.

At Barajas I run to my gate for Munich but the flight is delayed arriving due to Spanish air traffic controllers strike - again. I am told by an attendant that I need to go out and check in to get my boarding card.

I walk out of the departure gates to check-in and get my boarding card (passport shown) and walk right through security without any further need for my passport. The next time I show my passport is at the car rental company in Munich airport.

My story just shows the total lack of security consciousness at European airports, especially when both Germany and Spain have experienced terrorist acts in the past. I could have been anyone and my 100ml liquid containers could have been used improperly.

So my question is, how secure are your business premises, property and people? At the end of the day airports and airlines are businesses. Currently, I believe the security approach at airports is topsy-turvy and a major re-think needs to be executed to offer safe, speedy and comfortable transition for passengers.

I believe security consulting will be a major area where expertise will be required and growth in the future. This is itself will create jobs and opportunities making airports and airlines even bigger employers around the world.

Shah

Old vs. New

shah — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 03:39:00 -0500

You know how the saying goes 'out with the old and in with the new'. Well it is a dilemma that is being faced by many organizations as the Baby Boomer generation ages and the Gen X and Gen Y'ers and the Facebook generation enter the workforce. Many a Baby Boomer is uncomfortable with the fast paced, technology driven younger generation snapping at their heels. I see many a clash where the old are being usurped and surpassed by the younger contemporaries.

Should the elders move aside and make way for the energized yeunglings? Well it is and always be a case of debate. Over the last few years I have come across clients whose common phrase has been speed. Speed with quality in all they do and deliver. With instanteous market news and exposure speed is something sought by consumer and supplier alike.

Recently I came across an article where a typical Middle Eastern consulting client wants a project to be delivered in half the usual time taken. I hear constantly here about speed of implementation and integration.

This is an area where there are major clashes between the generations. The wisdom of age and having been through it is denounced in favor of rapid change. The older generation feel that the new generation can do nothing but make mistakes, lose time and re-invent the wheel.

There is great value to be had from people with experience and years under their belt, as mentors, coaches and knowledge bases. yet we must not deny the energy and drive coming from the young stars fo tomorrow.

Shah Alam

Creativity vs Competition

shah — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 05:26:00 -0500

Hello Readers,

Are Creativity and Competition two opposing forces or can they work hand-in-hand? I pose this question because I have a read a publication from the early twentieth century that denounces competition in favour of creativity. The author W.D. Wattles suggests that the plutocrats of the time, namely Rockefellers, Carnegie etc were necessary at the time but they are not the future. He goes onto say that the creative genius within people can lead to win-win situations for all without having to compete with one another. He goes onto say through our inherent creative genius, which if we nurture and strengthen through use can allow us to find new solutions, ideas, inventions, businesses etc. that can become future business giants.

The problem is society in general is geared towards competition that if someone else starts something then I will not succeed. In the coporate world the scramble up the ladder is very obvious. Ego's get in the way of doing what's right and best for the organisation, this could be a reason why we see the mess of the global economy over the last few years.

So maybe creativity needs to be taught and started earlier, way back in the schools and colleges. Future citizens of the world need to be inspired to think along creative lines in all disciplines.

However, I also believe in healthy competition, because it allows people to push further the boundaries of abilities, services and what's possible. Competition brings about new innovations and new discoveries.

I believe there is the possibility for the co-existence of the two without compromising the virtues of either.

Shah Alam

Hanging Up Your Hat

shah — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 05:17:00 -0500

Hello Readers,

Do you know when it is time to hang up your hat? Does anyone know when they should walk away and look at a new purpose in life?

I am seeing more and more that the answer is a resounding "no". Over the last few years I have come across numerous individuals both within teams that I have partaken in and client people who just don't know when to quit.

These individuals believe that they still know what they are talking about and have a dogged tenacity in their abilities to deliver. Yet, in reality they fail to give any value either in quality or quantity.

I believe it comes down to the fact that people do not have other interests or are so narrowly focussed that they do not see in what other way they can serve humanity. That service of humanity could be anything, anything that makes use of one's unique talents, skills and passions.

Take Michael Schumacher returning to F1, in my opinion "big mistake". Now he is critisized as a former champ who keeps crashing into other racers trying to jeopardize their efforts. So when he does eventually stop, that is what he will be known for rather than his previous championship status.

My message is evaluate yourself regularly as you reach the top of your game and if it is time to go, do it gracefully and find another purpose.

That's all for today

Shah Alam

Deer in the Headlights

shah — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 04:37:00 -0500

Good Morning from my desk in London.

It's a glorious summers day and the ash clouds have abated for some weeks now and flights are resuming normality over the UK, apart from the disruption BA is suffering at the hands of the unions.

My thought for the day is about management inaction and why some companies put people in power who are unable to take the necessary steps to make change happen.

There are some managers who head up organizations but lack any form of leadership. They see the issues in front of their eyes and yet they prevaricate about what the consequences of those isses. When they communicate to their teams they beat their chest and talk tough and demand tough action. Yet, they do this and say it often that people become numb to their chest thumping. The usual comments are "Ah! he's like a dog without a bark".

The only way to overcome this when performance is lacking or actions not taken is to make an example of an individual or two. A leader can only coach, guide and mentor so much. There has to come a time when a clear message has to be communicated that if an individual does not perform then they will be fired, demoted or moved sideways.

In today's tough economic climate such decisions should not be stretched out over a long period of time but a common three strike rule could be used. If no action is taken when performance is below par then the leader will be seen to be weak and over will lose liking and respect.

Senior managers have no time to be caught like "deer in the headlights", they have to be seen to be decisive and action oriented. People look for strong leaders who have the vision, the focus and drive to take them to the next level of corporate success.

Shah Alam

Rapid Change!

Admin — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:47:00 -0500

Good afternoon everyone, today I want to talk a bit about change and what it entails.

The implementation of any change program within a business is a serious matter. Many experts will spout soundbites to impress their audiences with "change or you will go the way of the dinosaurs" or "change is the only constant" amongst others, without clarifying what they mean.

One of the aspects of change many do not realize is that it is difficult in the best of circumstances let alone when the parties concerned are happy and willing. The level of difficulty increases exponentially when people are involved and where people have been in the same situation doing the same thing for decades.

Change and the following improvement do not come easy. The basic premise of change is that to improve, we must continuously change.

In physics however, for every action (change) there is an equal and opposite reaction. People by nature resist change, i.e. they will look for excuses, wait and see etc. The reason they do this is that change takes them out of their comfort zones.

Therefore, the more change there is the greater the resistance, the greater the resistance the more difficult it is to improve (change).

This is a vicious circle and can have serious consequences for any business or individual or even a country.

People tend to hide behind excuses such as past practices, politics, procedures etc. rather than change. Within any organization there are also a host of barriers that prevent improvement, such as inconsistent direction, poor management, skepticism, lack of trust and not invented here excuse.

I am going to do my own spouting now;

"there is nothing permanent except change and if you do what you always did, you will get what you always got"

So what can make people change?

Pain - emotional, financial, tragedy
Despair - over a long period of time
Discovery - constructive change is possible

Breakthrough comes when theories, concepts and philosophies are passed on as knowledge, then understanding and finally skills lead to breaking down of barriers.

Paradigms are "rules" we apply to certain situations to let us predict how things will be, that is rules of success. The key message is don't let YOUR paradigm become THE paradigm, because paradigms can CHANGE.

When a paradigm changes everyone goes back to zero. Past success is no guarantee. What is impossible today may be the norm tomorrow.

Change must be driven throughout the whole organization, that is: people, process, product

Managing complex change requires

Vision > Skills > Incentives > Resources > Action Plan > Change

However, many corporate leaders today want change to have happened yesterday. Well, it's a little bit late but not too late. I like the story of the ant and grasshopper, the grasshopper fiddled away the summer months and when winter came starved. Whereas the industrious ant worked throughout the summer and was able to store enough supplies to survive the winter.

We are still in a global recession and many more companies will continue to fall by the wayside, and those that are surviving are implementing cost cutting initiatives, change programs, six sigma etc to counter the effects of the recession. However, just like the grasshopper when good times were had they did nothing to prepare or protect themselves when the economy were to head south.

Now that companies are taking the lead to make a change, they want it to take effect instantaneously. Well, effective long-term sustainable change does not happen overnight. It requires thought, it requires planning, it requires expertise, it requires the inclusion of all within the company and last of all it takes time. Most large scale financial benefits of any improvement may not be realized for six to nine months after the action has been taken.

So my question to businesses is, do you have the patient to ensure long term successful change to take place within you organizations?

A Band-Aid ain't gonna work in todays business environment

Till the next time, I say adieu.

Shah Alam

Crime and the Economic Downturn

Admin — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 07:17:00 -0500

Newspapers, news channels and other news media are reporting that crime, especially theft has been increasing since the econimic downturn.

We hear in London for example, every other week a bold and daring raid on jewellery shops in broad daylight in fashionable areas of the city. One particular street that has been hit is Bond Street, where the premier designer labels have their flaghsip London stores.

Fraud and petty theft in the workplace is up in the UK and I am sure this is being replicated throughout the globe.

No one is immune to this current malaise of stealing property from retailers, employers and those who own such worldly goods as camcorders, iPods, expensive cars etc.

The economic downturn has created a forced repatriation of migrant workers from cities in the sand such as Dubai, Kuwait City and others in Southeast Asia who rely on workers from less developed countries. These workers go back to their countries without any hope of work in their native lands or a swift return to the so-called gold paved streets of developed nations. Eventually some of these people may resort to crime to feed themselves and their families.

The reality of the crime of theft hit home to me last night.

My parents having retired spend their time mostly in the north-eastern hills of Sylhet in Bangladesh. My father purchased a place in 1979 and built his dream home. In the last 30 years he has never had any problems of thieves breaking into his place even when the place was locked up and empty whilst they were in the UK.

However, last night they became a statistic and were robbed of some minor possessions, the usual camcorder, mobile phone some cash etc. Fortunately they weren't harmed or harassed.

But these are signs of the times and thieves are venturing into wealthy expat suburbs and villages where the pickings are rich.

Another, example of the times was a recent voluntary return home by a South Asian family from New York. The husband and father of the household was the main breadwinner, he lost his job late last year, subsequently his house was repossessed and he went bankrupt. With no immediate job prospects he returned back to his native country with his wife and two kids and will live out two years there until the job market is stronger in the US.

Some immigrants have a choice which is quite refreshing that allows them to sit out the recession in a country where they have land and an income which will pay for a lifestyle that costs very little in comparison to the West, whilst others have nothing to come back to and may resort to crime.

I think this recession is affecting every person on this planet in one way or another and here we are witnessing one aspect of the dark underbelly of globalisation.

But hey I am an eternal optimist and I think in countries such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan etc where law enforcement and crime resolution is a joke, there is a great need for private security firms to step in and provide a service that is much needed.

Till the next time

Shah Alam

The Political Animal

Admin — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:32:00 -0500

Can politics be harmful to a company?

Yes I definitely think so. In the last decade as a consultant I have seen political games being played across all levels of an organisation. I've seen individuals who are the "yes" man or woman to their bosses. These "yes" people will tag along regardless of whether decisions will benefit the organization in any way.

I've seen examples of where senior management have commenced an initiative to improve or change the business for the better, then as is normal in business a new CEO comes in and those initiatives are dropped. This is not because the new CEO has proposed an alternative but rather to please the newcomer and ensure the individuals are on his good books, because he/she said not to proceed.

Of course certain amount of politicking does oil the machinery that are the behemoths of business world. Funnily, the larger the company the more political wrangling is prevalent. However excessive politics can freeze a business and make it immobile.

Decisions are stymied action is not taken and competitive edge is lost.

Internal politics can cause ill-feeling amongst colleagues, it can cause undue stress and a myriad of other symptoms which ultimately lead to lower productivity, a greater number of sick days and ultimately a huge cost to the business.

Unfortunately, as is human nature certain individuals encourage such behaviour within their departments, divisions and teams. This is part of ensuring their empire survives (see my previous article Empires Strike Back). Others resign and take the attitude of if you can't beat them then join them.

I don't think politics within any business can be eradicated, purely because we are all humans and it is nigh on impossible to say what an individual brings to a job apart from their academic and business experience.

However, I think it is crucial that management see this as a disease and weed out such behaviour where it is identifiable. In the business world there is only one model that should be supported above all others and that is meritocracy.

That ends today's musing, till the next time.

Shah Alam

Empires Strike Back

Admin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:15:00 -0500

Good morning all from London.

Well we have good news from all around. The Chinese are showing very strong growth, Goldman Sachs posts record profits and the FTSE 100 has been climbing steadily with the banking sector leading the way. So we must be on the road to recovery? NOT!

Putting aside the so called recovery which in my view is a distant blip on the horizon, I want to talk about Empires Strike Back. No not Darth Vader in his raspy voice and his long lost son, young Luke.

In almost all the companies that I have implemented a change or performance improvement program over the last decade, I have seen a disturbing feature that is hugely detrimental to any business.

Empires!

Empires built by management at all levels within a business, but more prevalent within middle management. Empires that serve no purpose in running a business successfully. Empires that inhibit change, create a static environment and destroy value for all stakeholders.

My definition of an empire is as follows:

"A mini organization within a company that runs semi-autonomously with very little transparency and accountability"

These empires may be a small team or a whole department or even an entire account run by an individual and his 'minions'. These empires are very hard to identify until you come to review what is being done and who is doing what. They are also very hard to penetrate as the top two or three individuals running the outfit are very defensive and protective.

Such empires are run like fiefdoms and performance, efficiency, accountability and other key deliverables are 'managed' by those at the helm.

In my view the main reasons for the existence of these empires are:

To hide the weakness and inadequacies of the manager in charge
Reduce workload within the department or team, to create a 'cushy' work environment, i.e. lots of tea breaks and web browsing
Hide inefficiencies within the division
Develop a managers need to feel important and needed, massaging their ego
Job protection

I have come across one such incident recently where an account manager had a site manager running the day-to-day activities of the account, who in turn had a team leader running the teams workload, who in turn had a work allocator and also another person writing management reports. This was before we arrived at the people delivering the service.

It was such that the three individuals 'looked out' for each other to massage reports and numbers. When the performance improvement program was implemented, within 8 weeks the account manager moved out taking a sideways job change, the site manager resigned and the team leader was eventually replaced.

What strikes me is that when called upon for greater transparency and a clear measurement of performance these empires fall apart like a house of cards. These empire builders can never rise to the challenge of delivering when asked to, they usually become very defensive or walk away of their own volition.

It also seems that the larger the company the greater the number of empires it will have residing within. Don't get me wrong when a CEO or a senior manager is replaced he/she will bring in their team to make the changes they see fit to improve a companies fortune, but this should not be just so that another empire replaces the incumbent.

I think it is important that teams, departments and the whole organizational structure is reviewed by senior management on a regular basis to identify any unnecessary building of empires. These should be backed up with clear performance indicators that all managers should be held accountable to.

However, I do not believe this phenomenon will go away overnight or ever, it is human nature to create such empires and often these will happen organically and before you know it a behemoth is straddling a section within a business.

Till the next time

Shah Alam

Inherent Commercialism

Admin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:48:00 -0500

Hello everybody from a sweltering day here in London. It feels good to have 30 degree Celsius in the capital for a few days straight.

I was having a drink with a friend the other day who is a management accountant and was laid off last November from the financial industry and is still struggling to find suitable employment.

She has been thinking during her time out of work what else would give her a sense of purpose and satisfaction in life. She enjoys many extracurricular activities and especially working with kids.

So I posed her a question. If money was no object would she engage in a commercial activity to provide a service or a product or would she completely go off the radar and live either a WAG-like lifestyle or a hermit?

After quite a bit of deliberation she came to the conclusion that engaging in some sort of commercial activity would be where she would see herself.

Now let's look at a WAG-like lifestyle or the opposite term for men in those positions. I think most people would be bored where life revolved around shopping, the gym and the tanning salon. I'm sure others would enjoy this, but most people I have come across seek a purpose for themselves.

The second lifestyle of becoming a hermit or going off into the wilds to find yourself and meditate may appeal to some who are disillusioned with life and society and do not want anything to do with it. However, by disappearing like so, someone who is talented, skilful and has something that can benefit society would be doing the world a disservice.

Whereas, when someone turns to a commercial enterprise be it the little boy who is selling lemonade outside his house or Bill Gates whose software is almost on every desktop and laptop PC in the world, the domino effect benefits far more than initially envisaged.

Since man moved from the hunter gatherer lifestyle to the agrarian way of living he has bartered or traded what he produced for something else. For example, a pig farmer bartering meat for cow's milk. Nowadays, we have micro-credit that enables the poorest of the poor to access funds to start cottage industries in Africa, Asia and beyond.

We have a school kid in the UK inventing a solar powered refrigeration unit for countries in Africa and other continents where access to electricity is non-existent. This invention will benefit the less developed world in such a way that no amount of aid can do so.

I believe commercialism is in-built into our genes, some more so than others and the products and services that are invented, developed and spread across society on the back of commercial activity have a greater positive impact than any other method of advancing civilization.

Take Michael Jackson's music, if it weren't for the commercial exposure he got, then today not many people would have heard his music and thus not mourn his passing or revive the music he produced.

Shah Alam

The Challenges of Call Centres

Admin — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 02:27:00 -0500

Good Morning from London,

I trust everyone out there is enjoying 2009 which is a year of elections around the world and some surprising results are manifesting here and there that will hopefully move the world towards peace and understanding amongst the human race.

I was recently watching a programme on the BBC about the evolution of the human race, the anthropologist who presented the programme concluded that we the human race have a gene that indicates our emergence from a small handful of tribes that left East Africa approximately 70,000 years or so ago. They left via the Arabian peninsula through what is now Yemen and then beyond to populate the whole plant. So if we are all related to one another why do we have so much war, strife, hatred and violence towards our fellow man?

In the 21st century this has gone beyond the battlefields of Iraq, the diamond fields of Sierra Leone and the Korean peninsula.

It drives us crazy when we dial a number to pay our bills and we hear in a heavy accent someone saying "Hello my name is Fred, how may I help you?" When we clearly know this persons name isn't Fred and they are in an office thousands of miles away.

Call centres! They are the bane of modern life for many of us and I'm sure we've all seen red sometime or another when the person at the other end of the line cannot or does not seem to understand our needs. They speak like an automaton from a fixed script without any consideration for what our dilemma is.

When I first started consulting back in 1999, the client was a call centre operator with five locations in the UK's southeast. All the operators were young students or just out of university and had the ability to communicate clearly concisely and effectively. These operators handled calls for utility companies, banks and other companies selling services to the public. One of the noticeable beneficial aspects of using operators who are native to a country is that there is less of a misunderstanding in communication and the operator is more able to empathise with the customers needs.

However, as we all know most call centres were moved overseas and my first client also closed down all five locations in the UK for sunnier climes. A bulk of these call centres whether in Europe or USA were moved to India which has the advantage of English as its language of business. Couple this with low labour costs and you get a situation where any business would relocate to achieve costs savings.

Now, don't get me wrong I am just as much a capitalist as the next CEO, but some aspects of achieving costs savings that affect quality and the level of service should not be compromised.

So what happened in the early years of the new millennia? Well, in the UK for one, many companies brought their call centres back home and even went so far as to advertise the fact that "Our call centres are now based in the UK".

There definitely is a solid business case for locating call centres in a places where the labour is cheaper, for example I recently completed an assignment with an ICT services firm that have their first line based in Romania. The same client was also looking at options to base some call centres in Malaysia.

The key issue here is for companies to get a balance between what can be sent overseas without a drop in quality and quantity of service and what aspect of the operations must be kept in the home country?

Take a bank for example that offers a two tier personal cheque account. One is the basic account and the other is a premium service whereby the customer is paying a monthly fee to have the premium service. Now, you would expect the premium customer to be offered a service that ensures a qualitative handling of their needs. This does not mean that two call centres are operated, one in the home country and one overseas.

It is about implementing controls, metrics and reviews that measure and allow the continuous monitoring of customer satisfaction at all levels. Whether a company decides to send all its call centres abroad or keep some at home there needs to be a clear strategy on how to ensure customer service and satisfaction does not get compromised.

At Storm we have several articles on Call Centre Management and some tips on 'How To'. Click the link below to take you directly there.

http://www.storm-international.us/resources/KnowledgeBase.aspx

Till the next time have a great weekend

Shah Alam

Client's indecisiveness

Admin — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 17:36:00 -0500

In the past years I have been looking for an answer to the following question. Why do clients tell us that they agree with our findings during the analysis, but still feel that they do not need us?

There are obvious reasons one might say:

· They do not want to spend the money

· They do think they can do it alone

· They think they have the solutions

· They think that by bringing us in they might implicate themselves as having failed

Fact is that maybe all of the above reasons are true; however the most important part is that the client simply does not believe in a real bottom line return of his/her investment. This brings us to the question of trust and the question, if the client really believes you can deliver the solutions to our findings during the analysis.

We think we have achieved the liking and respect during the analysis, but did we close the client step by step on our findings? Did we every step of the way get his agreement, which says, if we can solve this issue would it help you and if we solve that issue would it help you? Etc.

Basically what it means you need to ensure that you are in control of the analysis from day one. You have to be true to yourself and ensure that you do all the things you told your client you would do.

The moment you do not, subconsciously the client will start to lose the trust or believe in you. It is extremely important that you deliver what you preach. Or simply do not preach.

Having said this it still does not make sense that the client truly believes your findings, and still does not bring you in to make the necessary change.

This basically again shows why the client and his company are in the situation they are in, they do not take “painful” decisions, they see what is coming, but they prefer to ignore it. They think we invest in equipment this will help, the market will turn around and everything will get better again.

The same happens in our day to day live, for example, I know I have to lose weight, I know how to do it, still I go to a specialist to tell me what I already know and work out a health and workout plan. With all this I sit at home think, about it and at the end of I decide to continue what I do today. If I am lucky things might go on, but really will hit I will get sick, I will have diabetes etc. at this point cure maybe too late.

So dear clients, get your act together, it is you who has to make the first painful decision for change. Keep in mind, “The Fish starts to stink from the head”. This is a simple fact.

So do you want to increase your productivity or efficiency? Do you want to become more cost effective? Do you want to reduce your operational costs? Do you want to become more price competitive?

If the answer is yes, what are you waiting for?

If the answer is no, nobody can help you!

Entrepreneurial Creativity and the Current Economic Crisis

Admin — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 03:59:00 -0500

Good morning from the battered shores of the British Isles.

The country is countinuing to take a hammering from the financial crisis and we have yet the April showers to arrive as the clocks go forward tonight to GMT (UTC).

With all that has been going on in the world of commerce and the corrective action that the British government has been trying to implement through Quantitative Easing (QE) or printing money, the general outlook is not very rosy. We in London are also looking at the possibility of 100,000 good for nothings descending on our streets to bemoan about capitalism and bankers as the G20 summit kicks off this week.

Funny how when things go bad it is the fault of businessmen and entrepreneurs who had the gumption to get up and create wealth and value for a nation or these days for the world. As in the past and as has been the case for millenia it is the creativity and ingenuity of entrepreneurs that has made the world a better place for all of us.

Swan Edison gave us the light bulb, Ford made the car available to the masses and today we have the likes of Apple tantalizing our senses with superb media technology.

And it is this creative ability of brave individuals that will get the world out of this mess. The world is in desperate need of people who can come up with solutions to the problems we are facing in light of the recent financial and economic meltdown. With everything that has happened people need to eat, they need a place to live, they need clothing on their back and some luxury and leisure to enjoy in their spare time. OK I concede that people may not spend as much as they did pre 2007, but they will spend albeit on a smaller scale.

I was reading an article in the Moneyweek publication and a journalist had been to Thailand recently, he asked a taxi driver what people would do if there was mass unemployment. The taxi driver replied "Well people would just go back to their family farms and grow crops". So you see this crisis is not the end of the world and we in the West are too hung up trying to over analyze what happened and then doom-mongering about the future.

What happened has happened, it's water under the bridge and we must move on. Yes there were lessons to be learned, the FSA, SEC, the central banks and the Chancellors all failed in their job as regulators of the financial system and measures should be put in place to avoid such a catastrophe in the future. But instead of trying to divert the media and public attention away from their failures what they should be doing is providing support to small and medium sized businesses as well as start-ups to kick the economy both nationally and gobally into motion. By helping these enterprises governments would be preparing the ground for them to grow exponentially when the recovery starts in earnest in 6 to 12 months time.

The UK government is pumping money left, right and centre into idiotic public schemes to have people occupied, trained, destressed etc during this downturn. We see public sector pay in the UK rise year on year while the private sector rises only marginally. We also see that the government is hiring an ever increasing number of individuals into local and central government to fill 'non-jobs' yet in the private sector jobs are contracting at a rapid rate.

What we do not hear or see is any talk up businesses or entrepreneurs being helped or aided with any free training, support, finance. The only hope young business people have is The Apprentice show with Alan Sugar which kicked off this week or Dragon's Den, a show where entrepreneurs pitch to get financing for their ideas.

Alas, most people have been hoodwinked by the media and their governments into a mob frenzy hence we have thousands descending onto London to demonstrate against capitalsimg which is exactly what those in power want. Keep the masses occupied whilst we fiddle with the books of the country.

The best thing these demonstrators could do is avoid going to the demonstration and sit down and think of a new product or service to develop or improve upon an existing idea, to increase the wealth and welfare of the people of this world.

Shah Alam

Barriers of Change in the Middle East from a Business point of view

Admin — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:30:00 -0500

In today's business world, change is the only constant. Change in the Arab world is something which is hard to handle, even though everything around us is changing constantly. Especially when it comes to business, being open for change and embracing change is a vital ingredient for success.

As Mr. Ari de Geus once said, "An organization may keep only one advantage over time, and that is to learn faster than the competition."

These days' privately or publicly owned companies in the Gulf or for that matter throughout the Arab world, go through the same phase the European /US companies went through in the late 80s and 90s, which is learning that the key to sustainable success and growth lies with the people within a company. It is essential that one understands that if you master the skill of "People Management", you have won the war, not only the battle with you competition.

Overcoming peoples' barriers to change is a crucial part of that skill. Every level of hierarchy in an organization is fighting these barriers and in most cases not successfully. The dilemma is that the owner or CEO of a company wants change and dictates change, but does not realise that he or she is part of the problem and part of the solution.

Ordering, dictating or assigning change on any level will not produce the results one might be expecting, as a matter of fact, change will take place for a limited time before it gets reversed. Long lasting change and the creation of a learning organization is a long process, but it can be achieved.

The first step however is to realize that in any company or organization, it is the people who hold the key to success. Not the multi-million investments or new equipments etc, but the people and the way of managing them. Many companies are lacking the management tools, processes and systems to be able to provide the base for mastering change and people management. Other companies have all the tools, processes and systems but lack the management skills to utilise those tools.

There are change management consultancies out there which provide hands on day to day management support, behaviour and awareness change and tools, process and systems to help companies to become a learning organization which ensures that the company will learn faster than its competition.

By the way none of the so called Big Five strategy companies or the top Accounting/Auditing firms will be able to help you to implement change throughout the organization. They are good in what they do, but they are not Change Management Implementation Specialists. They will cost you a small fortune and they will deliver a great detailed presentation and a manual, which at the end of the day will end up in your draw under the desk, because you neither have the time nor the management with the necessary skills to implement the change needed

Mastering, change and people management will result in sustainable finance results beyond once imagination. In addition it will ensure that those companies can not only compete in the regional market, but the increase in their productivity, efficiency and effectiveness will give them the necessary competitive edge, in the world markets of today.

Keep one thing in mind change is painful, for everyone involved some will take less time to accept change other need more time and yes you will have a very small amount of people who simply do not want to change. Those few will have no future in the company.

Change is basically nothing else than constantly shifting once paradigms and fact is, if a company does not frequently changes its Paradigms it will not advance. A company which does not advance will lose its competitive edge, lose market share, sales and finally lose its profitability and therefore possibly go bankrupt. On the other hand your company will be a perfect target to be taken over by an investment firm or competition but not at the price you would have liked to get for it.

So, where do You want your company to be in the near future?

Ramsi Al Hashash

+97339288379

ramsi.hashash@storm-international.us

Are You Commercially Aware?

Admin — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:29:00 -0500

Well good morning all and here is todays food for thought from London.

What do I mean by that question?

Commercial awareness is an element that should be at the heart of every individuals thinking within their business. Whether someone is a mom and pop store, a self-employed professional or the CEO of a multinational.

I have come across many managers, employees and businessmen who are running around trying to keep all and sundry happy, by ensuring the spinning plates are spinning without crashing to the ground. Yet, the cost associated with trying to cater to every whim of customers, suppliers and internal departments means costs spiral out of control and the bottom-line is shot to pieces.

The newcomer or the new financial year starts off meaning well with stretching goals for profit and costs, yet as time goes by 'getting the job done' gets in the way. Focus becomes hazy and the dreaded dragon of cost raises its ugly head. Activities that add no value creep in, and extra service is provided without taking into account the cost implications.

Yesterday I accompanied a colleague to a mom and pop store, the owner of which was a friend of my colleague. After a brief chat we left the store and the owner walked out with us as he was going home, leaving an employee in charge. As the owner walked out of the door he grabbed a two litre milk carton for personal use. Now, this may seem harmless but such non-accountability can lead to huge costs and a gaping black hole in a businesses profits.

How often within a corporate environment do people think about how their actions can affect the bottom-line?

Some key elements that seem to be missing from the vocabulary and thinking of management and workers alike are:

Production / service provision cost per hour
Hours required per standard product / service provided
Availability in terms of service provision or production capacity
Lost / down time reasons and the cost in hours
Cost of non-value add but essential to production / service activities

These are only some factors that need to be borne in mind by individuals in their business life. In my opinion the key element is the education of all staff within a commercial enterprise. Education being of the cost of doing business.

What does it cost an enterprise to produce a product or provide a service. That education does not mean that all employees must become aware of accounting principles or be able to perform analysis of financial statements. It simply means making them aware of the cost of their departments and in most cases their actions.

Shah Alam

Management Training

Admin — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 05:02:00 -0500

Hello All,

Yesterday I had a request from a colleague and friend who works for Beximco, a Bangladeshi pharmaceuticals company. He was asking me about how to write a business plan for a case he was working on and also he wanted to know about productivity, especially operational, human and marketing.

This question highlights two factors:

The level of knowledge within the management population of growing economies is lacking with many gaps.
The desire to learn about productivity in operations and the human side of it is quite strong.

Point 1 is not only restricted to less developed economies and the businesses coming out of there. In a recent assignment I completed the management populaton I worked with indicated that I was the first to provide any management training in several years, for which they were very appreciative.

Point 2 is an area where my colleagues counterparts in the West are very much in the dark about too. Over the last decade of working in the field of operational productivity improvement I have seen very little evidence of commercial acumen within a vast majority of client management. Most management I found were so 'busy' trying to get the job done that productivity and the implications of costs were nowhere on their radar.

So the education and training of management above and beyond what is taught at business school still lies within the development plans set out by companies for their management. The question is what is included in those development plans for people? It is not just about getting the job done, but a demonstrable knowledge of a whole host of skills. Here are some which I think are valuable in todays corporate world:

The strategy and goals of the business
Personal goals and deliverables
Key Performance Indicators
Bottom-line results
Project management skills
People management skills
Presentation skills
Report / business plan writing skills
Communication skills
Leadership skills

These are only a handful of items to be considered in terms of moulding management into super-managers and should be evaluated annually to track progress and ability.

Management trainng is a crucial driver of business success and it should not be left to chance, it should planned and executed effectively. By doing this not only super-managers can be primed for succession but also weaker and less able individuals can be weeded out.

The request from my colleague and friend raised an interesting scenario for the future.

If the managers of companies in developing economies are seeking out knowlede and training, then where does that leave the managers of companies in Europe and America who have highly sophisticated HR and training divisions within their businesses?

I feel that the next generation of Lee Iaccocas and Jack Welch and the likes will come from the East

Shah Alam

Is Money A Motivator?

Admin — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:34:00 -0500

Hello Readers,

I am back from my unplanned absence due to ill health.

Today I want to talk about money as a motivator. Does money motivate people or is it just a temporary reprieve until we demand more money or the main underlying issue of demotivation rises again?

We've all read about Herzberg's Theory of Motivation and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and it has been demonstrated again and again that money in itself is not a motivator. However, you have to ask yourself what about the bankers that have almost taken the world economy to the brink of oblivion through their need to generate more and more profits and the dubious means by which they went about it. Even today politicians in both the US ad UK fight battles to curb the bonus awards by bankers, though they are now part or wholly nationalised entities. Do the bankers at RBS, Lloyds or Bank of America deserve the bonuses their employers are about to pay them on the back of taxpayer bailouts?

Don't get me wrong I am a capitalist through and through and the pursuit of profit is a legitimate cause when pursuing any enterprise that produces goods and services and brings about benefits for society as whole. A lot of naysayers might and are crowing about the faults of the capitalist system and how it creates greed through the pursuit of money as the end result. Yet, it is not the capitalist system that is at fault but those who have abused it in the pursuit of money. The name Madoff springs to mind amongst many others.

It may be that we are having a major shift in paradigm that will shatter the theories of both Herzberg and Maslow. Maybe we are entering an age where people will be motivated purely by receiving an ever increasing amount of money. This is very much evident in the corporate scandals we have been seeing since Enron and today the banks. So it seems that certain individuals who head global corporations are motivated by money and they will take those enterprises under their custodianship to bankruptcy in that pursuit.

Another arena where we're seeing a shift in how people make money and pursue money is in the increasing field of spread betting both financal instruments and sports. Gambling is one of the fastest growing industries and one example of this was when in the first week of February 2009, England was under several inches of snow. Many people who stayed at home logged onto the Internet to engage in sports and financial betting. That one day on 6th February saw one of the highest revenues being generated for the likes of bet365 and Betfair amongst others.

Observers may say well it was just a blip and people were bored. Really? Was that the answer? I don't think so. One has to look at the psychology behind the decision of an individual to engage in a gambling activity. People are trying to win money easily. There is nothing wrong with the gambling industry it employes hundreds of thousands of people globally.

So is it time to rewrite theories of motivation, maybe maybe not but a revisit of what makes people tick in the 21st century is a must. Not only to confirm or not those theories but look at where those shifts are occuring in society and to ensure those findings are used as learning factors within the corporate world.

Till the next time

Shah Alam

The Motor Industry Malaise

Admin — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 03:21:00 -0500

So what about the US government trying to put together a package to bail out the US motor industry?

Personally I think it is a huge and costly mistake to offer any financial support to these archaic business behemoths. They should be left to fend for themselves, and let the strongest and smartest survive.

For too long these dinosaurs have displayed complacency and arrogance that got in the way of advancement and development of replacements for the internal combustion. The internal combustion engine is the most inefficient mode of powering a vehicle and it has been known for years. Even today they design and develop models like the Hummer, the Escalade and numerous other gas guzzling monsters that are totally out of sync with what is happening in the world today. They alongside the oil giants have lobbied the US government over the years to disincentivize new methods of powering transportation.

Their business model is flawed and against the Japanese car giants their cost base is too high. The unions have too much of a stranglehold on them to allow any advancement in working practices and freedom amongst the employees. Is it any wonder the motor city (Detroit) is a crime ridden, run-down and barren city.

This type of propping up inefficient businesses not only in the motor industry but also within the finance sector is storing up trouble for years to come. The sooner economists and governments wake up to this and realise that the free-market economy should be left to sort out the chaff from the true value based companies, the sooner the world economy can recover and move towards growth.

In my view both the US, UK and to a lesser degree the other Western world economies are going to be second class citizens in the global economy. The time will come when these economies will go with a begging bowl to the economies of the east to prop their 'house of sand' economies. This has already happened when Gordon Brown of the UK went on a whirlwond tour of the mid-east begging the Arab states to release their capital into the financial mess created by UK and US banks.

Their is a lot of trouble brewing ahead and many in power have got their heads in the sand

Shah Alam

The Future of Employment

Admin — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 04:17:00 -0500

Morning from a wet, windy and grey London, we’ve had freezing arctic weather a couple of days ago and now we have tropical rainstorms, albeit a bit cold.

Anyway my rant for today will hopefully get a lot of people thinking about the future of employment both for employers and employees alike.

The current malaise in the world economy is causing employers to axe jobs by the thousands. The banking sector alone is set to shed 250,000+ workers this year. The retailers Woolworths in the UK will go bankrupt with potential job losses of 30,000 or more.

What we must not forget is that this is just the beginning of the tightening of corporate belts over the coming years. Even though the shoots of recovery may begin as early as 2010, the world economy is not out of the woods yet.

Even though commodity prices are in the doldrums the costs of living and running a business are still sky high. Due to the expansion of growing crops for bio-fuel the cost of basic foodstuffs will continue to rise. An example of how basic food crops will continue to rise is demonstrated by the recent discussions by the Saudi Arabian government about acquiring arable farmland in countries in Africa and Asia to grow crops solely for the purpose of supplying the needs of its people. Crop production is greatly affected by oil as a lot of the raw material costs are derived from oil.

As the cost of oil has dropped this has not been reflected at the pumps for automobile users or in the fuels bills to run a home. What this has led to is a massive increase in the use of public transport, but the infrastructure for such transport systems is overburdened and ill-equipped for the surge in demand. A recent evening rush hour on a Friday in London, a tram system that operates in the southern side of the city had to be suspended due to overcrowding.

All of these problems and other constraints on resources and space will and is causing employers to radically think how they do business.

The key area where I believe change will come is where to base or locate employees?

There is already a huge drive towards home-based workers especially in the ICT services industry. This is where the next industrial revolution will come as more and more people are based at home and perform their services to their employer from home. With massive improvements being made in broadband and Wi-Fi technology and there is more to come from these fields, employers will increasingly make it mandatory for workers to be based at home.

Recently a friend of mine who works as a database manager for a large insurer in the City of London has been asked to become home-based from 2009 with a once a week visit to the office. A client I have been working with recently within the ICT industry has most of its senior employees based at home with a central and satellite offices where they can hot-desk when required.

I would go so far as to say why do we need call centres? Let every employee be based at home and with the appropriate management control systems, targets, and KPIs management can run a network or home-based employees.

You also have to look at the Internet, it is nowhere near its true potential and as more and more users around the world log on, and especially in China and India, the growth potential there is astronomical.

This will lead many people globally to run businesses, clubs, forums, workshops, schools etc online and breaking away from the shackles of employment.

The future I believe is more and more people working from home and more of these people will be entrepreneurs in their own right.

The benefits are numerous and here are just a few:

1. Reduction in the use of resources to fuel transportation

2. Reduced lost time due to lateness and transportation issues

3. Reduced productivity due to sickness

4. More flexibility in the service hours that a company can provide

a. i.e. by having home-workers around the world a business can support its customers anywhere

5. Reduced office costs for employers

6. More free time for the employees

7. Less stressed employees

8. Happier employees

Of course there are certain industries and employees who need to be based in an office, but it’s high time that all organisations reviewed the working practices in this field of where to locate employees.

Such a change will have greater benefits than costs.

Shah Alam

KPIs and their importance to businesses

Admin — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:29:00 -0500

Hi all, for today’s topic I want to talk about KPIs and how they can benefit your business.

KPIs are the guidance systems for companies in the world of commerce. They are one of the most invaluable tools available to management for running and growing their business.

Let’s take a car as an analogy. The very first Model T had probably a steering wheel, a fuel gauge and a speed dial. All a driver needed was those 3 things to get him from place to place. Go back 40 years and the cars had a bit more on the dashboard. They probably included an engine temperature gauge, rev counter and so on. Nowadays a BMW 5 series may include a satellite navigation system, a head-up-display of key indicators as well as rear parking sensor etc.

You can see how the KPIs of a vehicle have progressed over the years, yet many businesses stumble along day-by-day without any meaningful KPIs or no KPIs cat all. KPIs that can make a difference between success and failure in today’s complex world of international business are looked at in derision or inappropriate ones are used by management.

So how do you determine what KPIs to have that will enable your business to follow the correct path of growth?

1. KPIs should be closely aligned with the key goals of your business

2. They should reflect what the business does, i.e. if you produce widgets then there is no point in measuring the number of paper clips used

3. All KPIs must be quantifiable. You must be able to measure your KPIs as a number otherwise the measurement can be error ridden and inconsistent

4. KPIs must be controllable. There may be certain factors within your environment that are beyond your control, i.e. interest rates set by the Fed or Bank of England, these you cannot control

5. The KPIs must also be realistic to your business otherwise people will lose faith and will not utilise them

The key reason for KPIs is to increase performance in the future. As KPIs are based on past performance they can only be used to take action to drive performance tomorrow and beyond. There are several ways future performance can be improved using KPIs

1. Identify issues within the business that are causing the shortfall in performance in the first place. This might be lost time in man-hours caused by the issue. Once you can identify the lost time (which equates to money) an action plan should be put into place to eliminate or minimise future losses.

2. Identify positive performance and utilise this to explore areas of growth within the business.

3. These KPIs can also be used to set stretching targets and goals for employees and departments

Once KPIs have been determined and set they must be reviewed on a regular basis to drive the changes to achieve greater performance in the future. The frequency of these reviews will depend on the nature of your business. Now! In a manufacturing environment it maybe hourly and in others it maybe daily, I personally believe daily is a minimum and weekly is a must within every business. Any longer and it is too late to take action to prevent major losses.

One of the key factors to ensure the success of your KPIs is retaining detailed and structured database of information within your business.

I have worked with many companies where historical data is not available in a structured format or not available at all and it makes the whole KPI development process all the more difficult So on that note take a look at your KPIs within your business are they right ones and are they enabling growth for the future.

Shah Alam

Commodities Crisis

Admin — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 03:39:00 -0500

Good Morning from London,

We are now well into December and the final throes of this tortuous year for businesses around the world. One of the areas that has created the vast fortunes for Russian Oligarchs and hurt the pockets of every man, woman and child on this planet has come down with a crash. The commodities market and in particular the stuff that comes out of the ground has taken a hammering. Take the price of oil it is now below $50 per barrel. Iron ore a key component in the manufacture of steel has had the bottom fall out of the market.

According to market experts we are 5 years into a 20 year commodity boom, however at the moment it does not feel like one and everyone is shorting commodity and businesses whose core activity is in commodities. The stocks of Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Ferrexpo and Kazakhmys look as 'cheap as chips'.

So what are these mining and processing companies doing? Many are cutting back expenditure as money to expand operations and increase output dries up around the world. Many efficiency and improvement programs have been cancelled with outside expertise being replaced by makeshift internal teams.

Other companies are stuck with expansion plans and projects that started before this financial crisis, so they face the prospect of oversupply to an already stagnant market. Hence there has been a lot of talk of consolidation and I think there will be a greater need to merge in order to reduce costs and increase synergies between smilar operations. It may be that the commodities bull run will return especially once China and India re-commence their battle for economic supremacy. So those mining companies that have invested in bigger operations could bring them on line as soon as the global demand returns.

With regard to oil, many analysts are saying that the price of oil will roll around the $50 to $100 per barrel for the duration of 2009. Well! to me that's a huge margin to 'roll around' in. In the past 5 years or so many smaller and previously less economic oil wells were brought into production, but with oil at below $50 these may shut again. However, the word of advice to these smaller producers would be to review your cost base and aim to reducing it, and not necessarily look to a global oil price spike to povide the profits.

So what will companies do? Many will shut operations, fire people and sit the economic turmoil out. Such action stores trouble for later.

Now is the time to be proactive, look at new business models, creative ways to be more cost efficient and increase productivity. Maybe this turmoil is a wake up call to think outside the box and look for more innovative solutions. In my view the free market economy that pretty much has dominates the world is trying the clear out the trash that is within the system. It is the those companies that can think beyond their traditional models and ways or doing things will survive and others will fall by the wayside.

This is free-market evolution at its best.

Shah Alam

Knowledge in the 21st Century

Admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:03:00 -0500

My mid-week reflection covers a topic that is the future and has been recognised as being so over the last decade or two. The area is knowledge and what it means to today’s organizations. Increasingly so in the Western World and globally knowledge is driving change, economic output and the fast economic developments we are seeing in numerous industries. It is also promoting rapid industrialization of Less Developed Countries around the world.

However, it is the ability to manage that knowledge that will determine its best use. The old adage of ‘Knowledge is power’ is true but only if it is managed properly and put to good use.

Any knowledge within a company must be:

1. Accessible fast

2. Enable the latest in thinking

3. Allow for better sharing of that knowledge

4. Facilitate the knowledge of who is doing what

A lot of valuable knowledge is tacit and sits within the grey matter of a company’s people. When a person leaves for whatever reason then that knowledge is lost. It is the ability of a business to capture, store, share and utilize that tacit knowledge that will enable it to have a certain competitive advantage.

You take the knowledge held within the specialists that reside within many companies, how often do they share their knowledge or how often have they been asked to share their knowledge for the collective good of the business.

I have come across situations where many individuals take training provided, practice the training in a live environment, improvise their learning and keep that new enhanced knowledge to themselves. Yes! There are some people who may be selfish and want to retain the upper hand in case they face redundancy. Yet! I would criticize the company for not encouraging the development of knowledge and then sharing it amongst colleagues and peers.

By bringing the knowledge of an organizations people into the open the benefits would be increased efficiency and effectiveness:

1. Development of new ideas

2. Rapid resolution to problems

3. New starters hit the ground running

4. Eliminate waste through duplication and re-invention of the wheel

These are some of the transitional benefits to be had whereas if the organization was to go further and investigate ways to make knowledge key to business survival then knowledge can impact key business goals and productivity.

Many companies have a knowledge management expert with databases full of information gathered for the knowledge base. In reality how often do these get looked at and how informative are they. Plus, not every person learns by reading an article or a manual. The key is having different media to capture and share that knowledge. Take Wikipedia for example it allows anyone to amend its content. YouTube is another excellent example of how knowledge can be shared. Social networking sites enable people to get connected and share ideas, discuss and debate.

Any of these and other novel ways can be replicated for use within a business, leading to further benefits such as:

1. Faster innovation

2. Improved customer service

3. Reduce knowledge loss

4. Increased productivity / performance

So it is up to all companies to ensure knowledge is valued and it is used to develop new products, services and smarter ways to work.

Shah Alam

Performance Improvement Systems

Admin — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 02:46:00 -0500

Morning All,

Apologies for my recent absence I was on the road lately and hence my disappearance from the blog. However, I am back and today I have a topic which is a major issue within the consulting industry and for those compaies who employ consulting services.

I have heard of many companies who have hired consulting firms to implement a change program or a performance improvement system. The programm starts and all goes well, both the client and consulting firm work in harmony. Soon enough results are achieved both in terms of bottom-line financial savings and improvements in the approach, attitude and culture within the corporate environment.

However, some clients then mid-way through the project will call it to a halt and cancel the contract for consulting services. More often than not the reason cited is that their internal team has learnt enough to do it themselves.

If the program was left to run its normal course, any consulting firm worth their weight in salt would leave the client's internal team in such a position to continue with the program into perpetuity. But, as the client has called off the program with the belief that they can continue with the implementation is mistaken.

The implementation process is a very onerous task, it requires total focus on the program, training the internal team and management at international levels, it requires being able to have an objective view and above all time. Time to implement the program effectively.

I have implemented many programs where the management team who are involved in the program just do no have time. They don't have the time to attend regular progress meetings, they don't have the time to review performance, they don't have the time to attend training workshops etc etc etc. So the question is when management are so starved of time how can they realistically implement a program across the company with any real effect.

It's all very well companies saying that they can take over from a consulting firm and implement any program, but they do not realise that they are setting themselves up for failure. By taking such action they are also going to negate any benefits realised - financial or otherwise.

Unless there is gross incompetency or failure on the consulting firms side there is tremendous value to engage outside help in implementing any change or performance improvement.

Outside help allows rapid and focused implementation with results within months. Instead of taking years to do something internally outsiders can speed the whole process up exponentially.

Shah Alam

G20 Meeting and Implications for Business

Admin — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:48:00 -0500

Good Morning from London,

We have the G20 leaders of our planet meeting in Washington this weekend to discuss how to contain the current financial crisis. As George W. Bush welcomes the leaders they look over his shoulder for the president-elect Barack Obama. Many commentators are saying not much will be achieved as Bush is on his last days and there are many divisions between the G20 leaders in terms what types of reforms to implement.

The meeting is bringing together established industrial powers of Western Europe, Japan and America and the new in the shape of Brazil, India and China.

One thing is for sure this crisis is hurting everyone. The main protagonist who is also hosting the meeting - USA - is responsible for $1.4 trillion of bad debts according to the IMF, that are mainly down to the sub-prime meltdown.

Even the Russians and the Saudi's are in pain as a drop in demand for oil has led to a 60% drop in oil prices thus reducing the revenues of these and other oil producers.

We're even seeing China, Japan and Germany who rely on exports seeing orders fall as consumers in the US and other developed countries cutback.

When we see 20 industrial nations that account for 85% of the world's economy and two-thirds of its population suffering then a truly global recession is in the making.

Take the UK, we are seeing unemployment already exceeding the 1 million mark the highest in over a decade. Only recently RBS one of the irresponsible banks in this crisis announcing to lose 3,000 jobs worldwide. BT the telecoms giant is announcing 10,000 job cuts globally and just to take one company from the US, Sun Microsystems announces a job cut of 6,000.

What this means is that companies are going to have to get much smarter in sweating their current assets. Increased productivity is a must and one of the quickest ways to achieve that albeit a bit crude and not effective in the long term is people-off-payroll. As labor is the largest cost to any business, job cuts release a lot of cash immediately and prevents bankruptcy in the short term by stemming cash outflow.

Businesses will then need to look at their other asset classes and aim to get more out of them too. Assets such as plant and equipment, tools, work-in-progress, inventory etc.

All this increased productivity needs strong management systems to back it up and support as companies go through the tough times to emerge at the other end. Systems that if not in place will mean that any cost savings made will be lost if not measured, reported and controlled going forward.

As Jim Rohn says results are no good reviewing 6 years down the line, you need to know right now, tomorrow, every week, every month. I add to this and say take the necessary actions to steer the business into ever greater productivity and profitability, in some cases survivability.

One organization who has been quite adept at doing this is Tesco the international supermarket giant headquartered in the UK. In its native territory it has continually cut costs over the last decade or so to overtake Sainsbury's as the top retailer, a position once held by the latter.

However the problem with many successful companies is when things are going well they become complacent and do not see the competition sneak up behind them. Alas, this is what has happened in this financial crisis, many companies have been caught with their pants down in an era of cheap money. Now many are making hasty decisions to try and stave of bankruptcy, closures of operations and job losses.

The end will come but not until there has been a clearout of the chaff to leave qualitative, profitable and viable businesses. So all you investors out their with a lot of cash get ready for the rich pickings to be had.

Shah Alam

New Technology: The Bane of Productivity

Admin — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:13:00 -0500

Hello All,

My mid-week posting is a bit late arriving due to catching the dreaded winter flu. I've taken my vitamin C tablets, paracetamol and wrapped up indoors.

The other day as per my usual relationships with clients I received a distressed email from a Business Improvement Manager on previous project. He was panicking that a daily engineering report that I had created and set up was not working after he had made some changes and was asking if I could have a look to see what the issue was.

So I got my laptop fired up and opened up MS Excel 2007 in Windows Vista Ultimate, and had a look at the Excel based report that was the cause of the concern. I reviewed the changes made and the formulas in the report. There was nothing I could see that the client had done that would cause the reporting tool not to work.

I reverted back to the original template that I had created about 3 months ago and that also seemed to not work. I re-typed the formulas, the data, made new entries but to no avail.

I then opened a new Excel spreadsheet and created a formula to replicate what the report was doing, again no luck.

I was getting abit annoyed now as I was the one who created this report and here I was unable to make it work. Talk about my reputation being on the line. So I called the client asking him to give me a call, maybe two heads would be better than one.

Whilst I was waiting for the client to call back, I look at the formulas tab on Excel 2007, and noticed that all formulas were set to manual calculation both on my spreadsheets and reports as well as on the report my client had sent through. I changed it to automatic and voila it all worked.

Now! that had taken me a good hour to figure out. Shortly afterwards my client called and I explained to him what he needed to do and both him and I were gobsmacked. It had cost me an hour and him probably the same amount of time in lost productivity because of new technology.

With MS Excel 2003 on Windows XP the formulas were default set to automatic that was why I had no issues and nor did the client when I created the report 3 months ago in Excel 2003.

The question is how many people around the world are using MS Office tools and changes made by Microsoft are creating millions of hours of lost time in productivity as people try and figure out such simple aspects of a tool. The problem is not only constrained to Microsoft, I have had one previous client who said SAP was as useful as a refrigerator in the Arctic.

Recently it has been identified by many companies that technologies like the iPhone and other smart phones are huge time wasters within the corporate environment.

I find it laughable that technology, software and IT companies claim increased productivity through new products and services , when the fundamentally basic questions are overlooked.

Do we need this new technology? What are the associated costs? What are the benefits and who stands to benefit? Will my people be more productive? What are the training and back-up systems behind it? Does the new system allow plug-n-play or is there a protracted training and support required over several months or years?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a technophobe, on the contrary I was one of the first to run out and get the iPhone 3G, Blackberry Pearl and so on. Technology is like white goods these days, they don't build them to last so you are forever forced to buy the newest product.

So before committing to any new bit of software or technology conduct a thorough needs analysis asking the relevant questions along the way.

Shah Alam

Coaching For Success

Admin — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 04:12:00 -0500

Good morning again from London. My good friend and colleague Ramsi talked about numbers recently and how important they are in business, they are the lifeblood. Look at the world financial crisis today, it is all about numbers.

However today I am going to discuss one of the softer sides of business, namely coaching. Coaching in business and in the general populace has seen a huge explosion over the last decade. With the likes of Tony Robbins and other motivational coaches bringing the subject into the mainstream. Having worked and travelled in the US it seems that people of that nation tend to embrace personal development far more openly than other corners of the globe.

Coaching uses a lot of sporting analogy, whether it be American Football, Basketball, Tennis or some of the marathon running superstars of this world. One of the great examples is Lance Armstrong who has overcome great personal hardship to win the Tour De France again and again. Take Andre Agassi in his heyday, when he walked onto Centre Court at Wimbledon he had a certain air about him that said he was going to win the match.

Now in business everyday life may not be the one chance to shine and win the gold medal or first prize, but it is the accumulation of all those little successes that make good achievers into great achievers and great achievers into superstar achievers.

Alas, many great people are overlooked or are not given the opportunity because of many reasons. It could be company culture, it could be there are no opportunities in the department, maybe the management isn't right. Whatever it is there could be a whole host of reason why a talented indvidual is missed.

Now! It is upto organizations and the senior management wirthin them to foster a culture of coaching for success, to bring out the best, to enable creativity and create people who will make a company succeed exponentially. Coaching does not have to be a formal sit-down session with someone and it does not have to be a subordinate being coached by their superior, in a matrix environment anyone can coach anyone.

I would go so far as to say an individual can coach themselves. To look at yourself and then review the issue, concern or goal at hand and then think and I mean think to come up with solutions. Sometimes there may not be a solution, but it's this ability to take a step back and see the wood for the trees that really does help.

What we must not also forget is once someone clocks out of the office and goes home, realistically how much time do you think they will spend on personal development and growth? There will be some people who do look at themselves and question how to become better both personally and professionally. When a person returns back to the office the next day we as companies and management do not know what happened at home? did that person have a good weekend or bad weekend? what frame of mind are they coming to work with? are they feeling positive saying as Jim Carey does '..somebody stop me...' in The Mask or something else.

It is incumbent on organizations, management, HR and colleagues alike to work together to get the best out of each other.

I have listed below a set of tasks that individuals and teams can perform to achieve a greater level of awareness and success whether it be personally or in our chosen vocation.

Think Positive - always expect the best as one thought leads to another, ensure those thoughts that run through your head are the ones that you want
Clear Goals - have clear goals of what you want, whether it's to run 5 marathons in 2 years or to become the CEO of your company in 15 years
Be Curious - ask questions, there never is a stupid question, you can only learn and grow by being inquisitive
Stimulate Your Mind - even if this mean playing those brain training games on the Nintendo DS or playing Sudoku
Creative Visualization - try to see the solution in your minds eye. See what a future scenario might look like to get some ideas on solutions
Laugh - In India they have laughter clubs that help people de-stress, as the old saying goes laughter is the best medicine. So book that Saturday night comedy show
Physically Active - this is one of my favorites, for me nothing beats a good 10 mile run or a 30 minute workout on a punchbag
Intense Concentraion - here don't just concentrate on a something you are doing or trying to find a solution to, concentrate so hard that you may only fall short of Einstein's genius. In this day and age of speed no one likes to sit and think. Try it you will be amazed
100% Responsibility - you are wholly responsible for your life, your career, your success, your failures and everything else in between, so be careful how you go about your day-to-day activities
Burning Desire - This will be a tough one for many people. You must have a burning desire to succeed in anything. Another term I use is Monomaniac, to not stop unless success is achieved. You look at some of the great achievements made by the likes of Edison, Bannister, Einstein, Alexander the Great all of these individuals and others did not stop until they achieved their dreams, even if it meant loved ones got hurt. So ask yourself how badly do you want that goal?

One that note I will bid farewell and I look forward to sharing a few more anecdotes in the coming week

Shah Alam

Numbers are the key to success

Admin — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:02:00 -0500

How important are numbers in the business world? Is there a department within an organization where numbers do not matter?

Numbers are for an organization what water is for us humans, we cannot live without it. We can survive for a certain period of time without water, but everyone knows that without water we will die.

Same with a company, if you have no numbers about your organization, the likelihood that your organization will survive is basically zero. Even if you have numbers/figures, the quality of the same is very important too. If your water supplies are of poor quality you will get sick and you might die.

Enough with the analogy, the key to success of any department has two main factors, people and numbers. Since numbers are clearly a by-product of people, people are or better should be the number one priority in any organization. So numbers would be the second most important thing in an organization, since one could do nothing without having the proper data available.

Market analysis, product analysis, customer and supplier evaluation, operating figures, balance sheets, productivity figures and P&L, just to name a few areas where numbers are essential.

None of the above mentioned areas or reports can be accurate on its own. So if numbers are not accurate what is the use to have them, if numbers are not produced in a timely manner the organization will always have a disadvantage.

Creating a structure and organization, which is capable to measure and produce all kinds of KPIs and KVIs in each department, is essential to an organizations success. Does this mean an organization should measure everything; no it should not measure everything.

The idea is to study each department and learn about the key activities of each department. Those key activities can then be transformed in to key performance indicators which can be used to measure the department’s performance. Some of the key activities will be used as key volume indicators. Having the KPIs and KVIs in place one can manage a department a lot more effective, and be proactive in taking actions for the department’s success.

Multiply the above scenario across all departments and you will have created the necessary transparency to be able to manage your organization in the most efficient and cost effective way, if you analyse the numbers correctly. Please understand that all departments need to be transparent and its performance measured, since most departments if not all have some kind of interface with each other and this means that numbers can be effected through the interfaces to other departments.

Some will say, how can one measure an administrative department? Well one of the oldest administrative job is that of a secretary. Already 100 years ago secretaries where hired by probably using one of the first KPI, which was how many words per minute could the secretary type. This is a clear key performance indicator. So the answer is yes you can have KPIs in administrative departments and R&D departments, it really does not matter which department. The reason why people do not like numbers, in this case KPIs and KVIs is that they create, as mentioned earlier, a level of transparency and who really likes to be transparent.

So in terms of understanding Marketing, understanding the need of Marketing and how it can benefit an organization one must understand that numbers are a vital ingredient for any Marketing approach or Marketing strategy. Getting market data in the Gulf and especially in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is already difficult enough and the data which one get’s is questionable therefore it is even more important that one ensures that the internal data is available at any given time and accurate.

Creating a brand or planning to introduce a franchise and planning growth, all is based on numbers; more accurate those numbers are more successful the organization will be. Therefore it is essential that business owners and top executives understand that sharing numbers in an organization is vital to ensure improved efficiency and improved cost effectiveness. With numbers you can manage expectations, with numbers you can set goals and you can measure variances to take corrective actions.

Change Is The Only Constant

Admin — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 05:16:00 -0500

Good Morning on the 1st day of November.

Today is a grey and murky day in London with the celebrations from last nights Halloween hanging heavy both in the air and over peoples heads. Outside it is quiet and we see a further change in the weather as it is markedly colder than the last weeks of October.

Just as the seasons change, everything else must change in order to evolve into something better. Take the current global financial meltdown. Elements within the financial world must change in order for this meltdown not to happen again. This is not to say that another global problem will not arise, sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west in another 10 or 15 years we will see another global recession. In what form no one knows.

Change is something that is dreaded within the corporate world, by management and employees alike. I've been to many companies throughout the world where comments such as "We've always done it like this" or "Why change something that's not broken" are uttered regardless of business, culture, country or anything else.

If we look at it another way, at our personal lives, how does any improvement come about? It only comes when we do something differently, when we "change for the better". If we are fired from our job we are forced to change our career and if we learn from the firing then we will be wary of letting it happen again.

Another instance may be when we do not get the promotion we seek, or get bored at a job we will seek a job or vocation that satisfies us. We may even start our own business. However, the population of people who tend to change of their own volition is few and far between and this is reflected in many organizations throughout the world. This is because most people who are not continuously seeking to change and improve their personal lives will not be the dynamic employees who embrace and run with corporate change.

So it is up to senior management to encourage their people to look at their personal lives and review where they are headed. If those employees are able to state that they have personal goals that they want to achieve and work for those things that they believe in. It is these individuals that management need to identify and get them to lead change within the corporate environment.

Change is not something to be scared of, we must continually ask ourselves how we can improve, do things differently and stay ahead of the competition.

If businesses cannot or will not change then how many more casualties during this recession and beyond are there waiting to go the way of the dinosaurs?

Shah R. Alam

Personal Productivity

Admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:56:00 -0500

My mid-week thoughts bring me to a subject which is very rarely discussed and even measured. Many in the corporate world especially senior executives may not think that this is a relevant area to pay any attention to or apply any metrics. Others may view the areas I am about highlight as ‘necessary to get the job done’, and applying a metric is more time-consuming and trivial.

However I believe it is of paramount importance that executives and professionals are mindful of how their time is spent as well as the time of their subordinates.

Let’s look at what I am talking about. How many times has anyone gone away on vacation for two weeks to return to an inbox of 300 emails? The Monday of one’s return is spent clearing this bane of modern corporate life. What makes it worse is emails are sent by colleagues sitting across the desk, rather than walk over for a chat or picking up the phone.

Another great time consumer are those meetings that one gets invited to regardless of valued added or received. Now, don’t get me wrong meetings are crucial to a well functioning business but where do we draw the line on the number of meetings, the input required, the quality and the most importantly the actions arising from those meetings.

To me as a professional it is up to us to continually push ourselves to improve, to do more, and to achieve greater results. If we do not push ourselves to strive for greater success then the net effect will be the rewards that we receive.

So here is a list of 5 personal productivity metrics that can be used as yardsticks to measure one’s personal productivity as well as asking your teams to measure themselves against.

1. % of emails received but not read

a. Deleting emails is an action but even better is unsubscribe to those unwanted newsletters

2. % of meetings lasting less than 30 minutes

a. Encourage meetings to be shorter and focussed on objectives

b. Ensure only required attendees attend

c. Ensure and action list is logged and circulated

3. % Time spent on priority tasks

a. The key is to maximize this and reduce time on quick tasks that are of less value

4. Cycle time of regular tasks

a. How long does it take to perform those daily/weekly/monthly repetitive tasks

b. Ensure only the necessary time is taken

5. Return on time invested

a. This one could be related to revenue generated by the time invested on the task in question

These areas are some food for thought as we all try and get more out of our day.

Shah R. Alam

Teamwork Within Organizations

Admin — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 05:39:00 -0500

Good Morning from London on a beautiful autumnal day where its is sunnier today than many a day during the summer of this year. The sun is out and we are only eight and a half weeks away from Christmas. Many businesses have forecasted low earnings in the last quarter of this year, with the retail industry dreading pre-Christmas sales.

It is at times like this when the economy is up the proverbial creek and no one on board has a paddle, that team work comes into its own. There is a lot of literature on teamwork and many organizations put their staff on team building exercises on and off site from the company's location. Team work is a must have within any company but what I am going to talk about today is not just any old teamwork concepts but Superteams and what constitutes such a group of people.

Here are 12 qualities that all Superteams should display in order to deliver results:

Superteams are persistent: They are obsessive in pursuit of their goals, with a creative flexibility within their strategies for achieving those goals
Superteams confront obstacles: They are tenacious in their efforts to remove all obstacles
Superteams are committed: They have a high expectation of themselves and others
Superteams are congruent: They understand the strategy and philosophy of their parent organization
Superteams are inspired: They have a strong sense of purpose and direction
Superteams are networkers: They actively build both formal and informal networks
Superteams are visible: They make themselves visible and available to others
Superteams are driven by success: They exude the energy, excitement and commitment tha being successful releases
Superteams are action-oriented: They are proactive responding quickly and positively to issues and opportunities
Superteams have significant influence: They have immense power within their organization based not on formal authority but on credibility and deliverance
Superteams are flexible: They use principles and guidelines as procedures rather than rules
Superteams are responsible and accountable: They are committed to the success of their company and thrive in an open culture of responsibility and authority

Today more than ever Superteams are required by organizations to create opportunities, resolve issues and ensure the survival and continued growth for future prosperity

Shah R. Alam

If you have any questions you can contact me on shah.alam@storm-international.us

Productivity During The Lean Times

Admin — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 05:59:00 -0500

Here we are on Wednesday during the penultimate week of October 2008. The stockmarkets are again yo-yoing as central bankers and governments are doing their darndest to calm everyone down and bring stability to the world of commerce. Yet, life goes on and so does the world of business.

One area where it is important to keep an eye out on at all times is business productivity, or how to increase productivity growth. This is the ability to produce more goods/services with the same resources. When we are faced with economic uncertainty as we are now, the other option is to produce the same wth less resources, hence we are seeing businesses rationalizing their operations at break-neck speed.

The ability to increase productivity is more accessible to the larger corporations as they are able to source superior business advice for ideas and methodologies that will enable them to achieve this goal. Also larger firms have greater access to advanced technology to increase their productivity. However, technology only goes so far to increase productivity, it is far more beneficial to understand the relationship between what is being produced with what resources. We are also seeing smaller firms that are growing and mid-size companies seeking specialists to help them increase productivity.

Productivity is a key measure in all industries, more particularly so within manufacturing. Manufacturing within Western economies have been under huge pressure to reduce costs and increase profitability. This is likely to get worse in the coming 12 to 18 months, but all is not lost. If organizations incorporate productivity as a key measure within the their business performance measurement system, proactive action can be implemented to better manage their overall success.

Well this is my mid-week bitesize chunk on being better at business

Shah Alam

Global Recession and its Implications for Businesses

Admin — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 05:12:00 -0500

Good Morning from the desk of Shah Alam on a fine Saturday morning in the city of London.

As I look out of my window towards the gleaming towers of Canary Wharf the financial heartland of London. I can see the winds of change have affected one of the banking residents of the complex more visually than others. The Citigroup tower no longer has the companies logo surrounding the four sides of the building. Where the logo stood with the distinct umbrella now they are empty like the eyesockets of a skeleton.

The global banking crisis we are told has been the worst in a lifetime and the last time we were in a major recession was back in 1992 when again property in the UK and US nosedived and repossessions were at record levels.

Now I am not going to judge the business models the banks used to generate revenues and profits, at the end of the day that's what businesses are there for, to generate revenues and profits for their shareholders. What I have a problem with is the bail-out offerred by the various governments around the world.

Simply put, companies just like individuals should be held accountable for their actions and pay the price of those actions. The bail-out sends out the wrong signals to the general public and corporations. The question I have is, if my business were to go under today and I had to let go of say 1000 people would any government bail me out? The answer is NO. So the answer should be a stern NO to these banks.

Having said all that what does this mean to businesses in the coming 18 to 36 months when the recession will begin to bite in more ways that one.

Well firstly, we in the business world should be aware of the cyclical nature of the economy in our respective countries and now globally. It has been 15 years since the last major economic slowdown so this one is near enough on time albeit a bit later than usual given that the global economy has been bouyed by the easy credit bubble that we have been experiencing.

Secondly, the best time to 'batten down the hatches' is when the going is good. Corporations should have been looking at a systematic approach streamlining their businesses and eliminating waste and cost wherever possible. This prevents the knee-jerk redundancies of thousands that we see in the news. This is not only happening in the banking sector but also in toy factories in China and mining companies in Kazakhstan.

Thirdly, it is not bad as it seems, there is no need to jump off the 18th floor. The recession will be over before we all realise, this is evidence in that it is more than 12 months since the sub-prime crisis in America emerged and the first casualties in the banking sector were being rescued or going under. It may be another 2 to 3 years before we see any sign of strong recovery, which is a blink of an eye in the business world, especially when we're all trying to get through these tough times.

So what can businesses do to get through this rough patch:

Perform a review of the operations of your business, employ specialists this will help save time and money as well as bring objectivity to the process
Implement recommendations from the review
This may entail stopping loss making operations
Develop a clear concise and appropriate business strategy and stick to it
Be creative and launch new products/services, because the current economic climate will mean a lot of people are cost cutting. Look at ways how your company can fill that need.
Make changes in management, because if the incumbent team were unable to prepare for the current climate then they will not be able to get you out
Weekly performance reviews and business updates with everyone, management sould keep the finger on the pulse and be proactive at the earliest signs of issues and opportunities
Plain HARD WORK, I cannot emphasise this point enough. In corporate Europe and America office workers spend 60% of their time on non-value added, non-work related activities, which is a massive opportunity to tap into.

Well! the sun is out now and as I conclude my musings for this week, I wish all of you happy hunting for the coming week. Till next Saturday.

Shah

PS: There are opportunities galore out there, this is a fantastic time to buy undervalued businesses, lock in low prices, negotiate better terms with suppliers. Think laterally and reap those rewards personally and for your organization.

Welcome to our Blog!

Admin — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:43:00 -0500

Welcome to Storm International's blog discussing how to improve manufacturing efficiency and other types of change management.