Whatever Matters!!

Google Wave

2009-12-18T08:17:00.002+06:00

I have a few invites left - and am happy to invite my regular readers. If you are interested, please email me. You will see my address at the profile bar.

Climate Change series 3

2009-12-15T23:52:00.006+06:00

You can follow the conference in Copenhagen here

18/12/2009

US offer of long term aid (NYT)
India willing to do more (WSJ)
Copenhagen Wheel (Independent)
Climate Change will affect more than polar bears (Huffington Post)

17/12/2009

Climate Change not just about numbers (Guardian)
New Climate Finance Deal from Africa (VoA)
Getting at the roots of Climate Change: Food (Huffington Post)
China's delicate balancing act at Copenhagen (FT)
Rally people around Climate Change with fruit, Not Medicine (Harvard Business)
Financing the fight against Climate Change (Economist's View)

16/12/2009

Young People use Google Wave to analyse negotiations in Copenhagen (Guardian)
Bjorn Lomborg on smarter approach to Global Warming (NYT)
Identifying a fair deal on Climate Change (voxeu)
World Income variation and three centuries of climate change (voxeu)
Aid, Climate Change and Copenhagen (FT)
Schwarzenegger on Palin's global warming stance (Think Progress)
Carbon caps and US competitiveness (Harvard Business)

14/12/2009 & 15/12/2009

Tuvalu at Copenhagen (Think Progress)
How Climate Change will affect hunger (Global Dashboard)
Climate Denial Industry and Conspiracy (George Monbiot in Guardian)
Power from Coal without digging (Technology Review)
Bolivia - Water and Ice tell of Climate Change (NY Times)
Ocean Acidification (Telegraph)
Climate Change Performance Index 2010 (GermanWatch)
Tools from Microsoft to understand Climate Change (Information Week)

Weekend Links -

George Soros on Financing the Fight against Climate Change (Project Syndicate)
Carbon Permits Vs. Carbon Taxes - Basic Economics (Econospeak)
8 Reasons why you should cut carbon (aside from climate change) - (Harvard Business)
Sarah Palin justifying her climate change denier op-ed (Think Progress)
Copenhagen Day 5 - Round up (Environmental leader)
Draft Climate Plan released (Washington Post)

Parliamentarians, Pay Increase and Value

2009-12-15T13:08:00.003+06:00

All I have seen are just lame reasons for the discreet pay increase of our MPs. As for the talent argument - I say - bullshit - at least looking at the current stock of our MPs. I stand to be corrected on this anytime though.

Several discussions here, here and here, and we can that people are rightly and clearly unhappy. If this was a deserved raise, somebody should clarify why this is so.

There was an interesting publication in the UK about pay and societal value from the New Economics Foundation (They measure well-being and have participated in some of our GNH conferences). Though focused on the UK economy, this is relevant to the current discussions engendered by the unexpected pay increase of the Parliamentarians. Without further ado, here are the key findings -

While collecting salaries of between £500,000 and £10 million, leading City bankers destroy £7 of social value for every pound in value they generate.

For every £1 they are paid, childcare workers generate between £7 and £9.50 worth of benefits to society.

For a salary of between £50,000 and £12 million, top advertising executives destroy £11 of value for every pound in value they generate.

We estimated, however, that for every £1 hospital cleaners are paid, over £10 in social value is generated.

For a salary of between £75,000 and £200,000 tax accountants destroy £47 of value for every pound in value they generate.

Our model projects that for every £1 of value spent on wages, £12 of value will be generated. (for waste reclycling workers)

So, bankers, accountants and top adverstising executives destroy value while child-care workers, hospital workers and waster reclycling workers add a huge amount of value (as high as 12 folds) to the society. As they note that their calculations may not be precise, it does a make a point about pay and value. If you have time do at least read the executive summary.

May be we should subject our our pay and value system to similar critical analysis. Any takers!

A visual analysis of Lyonchhoen's recent speeches

2009-12-14T23:48:00.025+06:00

Keynote address at the 5th GNH International Conference in Brazil

And the opening address at the workshop on "Educating for GNH"

These wonderful images were generated using resources here.

Pay, Flat World, Attracting Tenants, etc - Readings

2009-12-14T23:06:00.000+06:00

Does your office need an intervention? (Harvard Business)
Pay and Contribution (A 44 page report from the New Economics Foundation). If this is too long - read this discussion(FT)
Is the world really flat (Robert Salomon)
10 ways to attract good tenants (Donald Trump blog)

Trump, Ego, CSR... - Weekend readings

2009-12-11T23:30:00.005+06:00

Wise leaders just know enough - (Harvard Business)
Making the most of CSR - (McKinsey Quarterly - will require signup but recommended)
Appreciate - it is a good tool (tompeters)
20 Questions - Donald Trump (FT)
Keeping your ego in check (Harvard Business)

Why our Lyonpos, MPs and Leaders should try Twitter?

2009-12-09T23:45:00.015+06:00

I hate communication which are verbose and full of jargon. To make matters worse they rarely answer the questions asked and even confuse the listeners. And this seems to be exactly what our Lyonpos, MPs and leaders within the Civil service and the private sector seem to be doing -

To a question on FDI asked by the Opposition Leader to Lyonpo Khandu, he writes:

"Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk’s reply was long. He talked the House through the history of FDI in Bhutan, economic growth, economic policies, employment, tourism, foreign currency, domestic airports, helicopter services, seasonal tourists, conference centers, infrastructure, credit cards, TAB, tourist visas, and hotels. He even mentioned McKinsey and Brazil!"

Not clear if he was satisfied with the response -

In another post he summarises the response of our finance minister to a question posed by another MP as

" The Finance Minister’s response was long and detailed, but confirmed that the MP was correct in asserting that, “…till date not much has been delivered.”

Here the DHI Chairman completely misses the question -

He says “The assembly members should know that we are functioning within the legal framework and they should understand the position of the royal charter,”

From the chairman of an organisation which looks to improve governance and performances of many of our corporations, this looks lame.

There are many such instances - I was once chided and ridiculed for asking a question during a gathering by a senior official. Of course I didn't get any answer. We can also attribute the failure of embedding GNH within our society partly to our inability in communicating it in a way that our people can understand.

There is clearly a need for our leaders to communicate effectively and in this - I find the rule based on which Twitter works very useful - "Deliver value (your messages) using no more than 140 characters". It is very challenging but I have found remembering this one very useful.

There you go - Honourable Lyonpos, MPs and leaders - If you need to discipline your responses - try twitter. You will also get to know how popular you are or how much value you offer through your messages by the number of followers you have.

Bold and Wrong - Salary Increases for our Parliamentarians

2009-12-09T23:23:00.000+06:00

Now this is bold!

Not the Opposition Leader's update but the salary increase for our Parliamentarians especially at a time when:

The Government rely heavily on foreign aid to fund our development activities
Our national debt is close to 60% of our GDP
Many families have lost much of what they have in the recent disasters and are still rebuilding their lives
The Lyonnchoen talks of a change in our "consciousness and lifestyle" from one of "greed, materialism and consumerist fallacy" to that of GNH
The unemployment is at an all time high of 4%
The Government talks of transparency, efficiency, cost reduction and service to the people

For all of the above and for want of a rational justification, this is wrong. I hope this is a mistake.

By the way - this isn't even in the agenda for this session of the National Assembly.

Climate Change Series 2

2009-12-08T06:15:00.004+06:00

Links 10/12/2009

Consequences of Global Warming - From A to Z (Think Progress)
100 million more hungry due to climate change (Daily Mail)
Acidic Oceans (GS Monitor)
Round-up - Day 3 (Independent)
And for detailed updates from Copenhagen - visit the official website of the conference

Links 09/12/2009

Top 5 Issues at Copenhagen and 10 Animals Threatened by Global Warming (US News)
Defining Success in Copenhagen (Belfer Centre)
We must respond to Climate Change Today (COP15 Post)
Key Effects of Climate Change (BBC News)

Links 08/12/2009

Will big business save the planet - Jared Diamond (NY Times)
Climate Thinkers Blog (Perspectives from all over the world, COP15)
Focus on Carbon Negative (Harvard)
Quotes from the 1st day of the talks (Reuters)
Low Carbon Growth and Businesses by Lord Stern (FT)

WTO, Trash, Loneliness, etc. - Readings

2009-12-07T23:24:00.000+06:00

WTO: Group Mulls - talks continue (FT)
Three myths about trash (Ludwig von Mises Institute)
Feeling Lonely, don't come near me: Loneliness is contagious (Washington Post)
Manage your time like Jim Collins (Harvard Business Publishing)
Giving Feedback to a high performer (Harvard Business Publishing)

Focus - Climate Change Series: Only Links (1)

2009-12-06T23:13:00.002+06:00

The UN Climate Change Conference begins in Copenhagen from 7th Dec till the 18th of Dec. I will update this post by adding links to my readings (interesting ones) daily leading upto and till the end of the conference on 18/12/2009. This post will go top as I add more links daily.

Links 07/12/2009

The conference kicks off today and you can follow it live on their website through podcasts and articles. Anywat here follows some links for the day -

Key dates for a warming planet (Associated Press)
Brazil to be a major player (GovMonitor.com)
The Copenhagen Communiqué (Newsweek)
Q&A on climate science (Dailymail)
Science and politics of climate change (WSJ)
Money for developing counties to adapt to climate change - not much (IRIN Global)
1.3 billion Asians threatened by climate change (Islamonline)

Links 04/12/2009

850 companies in the UK sign up to climate statement (UK Press Association)
Arnold and how California can be impacted by Climate Change (Dailymail UK)
India announces emissions plan (NY Times)
A YouTube Video - Climate Change and Bhutan (From Nature on YouTube)
TED 2009 Talk - Al Gore and latest climate trends (TED)

Links 03/12/2009

Climate Change- the second most serious problem (EUROPA)
China the real Climate Leader (Huffington Post) and Economist Debate (Economist)
Climate Change - what now? (Independent)
Austalia Stumbles (Telegraph)
A closer look at the Copenhagen conference (Finding Dulcinea)

And Closer Home -

Bhutan's Scenario (RSPN)
India likely to announce emissions target soon (UNCCC)
Nepal Cabinet meeting at Mount Everest Base (Bloomberg)
Climate Change Impact on Nepal (Himalayan Times)
Publications relating to Climate Change and Bhutan (NEC)

Links 02/12/2009

UN Climate Change Conference Official website online
A climate challenge for Bhutan (My earlier post)
Reflections on Climate Change (My earlier post)
Climate Change is Real (My earlier post and has links to many resources)
The Cost of Climate Change (Kuensel)
50/50 chance of saving catastrophe: Lord Stern (The Telegraph)
Dalai Lama's call (GreenMuze)
Report from Bangladesh (The Mirror)
Seven Answers to Climate Contrarian Nonsense (Scientific American)
And finally Climate Change - Copenhagen in pictures (BBC)

Rejoiner - GNH on Kuzuzangpo

2009-12-06T23:10:00.002+06:00

This was a rejoiner to a discussion on GNH on kuzuzangpo.

As usual - this discussion is also on the verge of degrading into a name-calling exercise.

Now having read everything that has been posted in this thread - I have to say that we haven’t come any close clarifying what exactly GNH is? What does GNH try to answer? What approach should we take in realising it? And who should be responsible for taking GNH forward?

I believe any theory/concept should be an attempt to clarify an existing problem. GNH is no exception.

Although I agree with down2earth that any concept like GNH should be able to stand the scrutiny and rigor of logic and reasoning, I don’t think that the problem here is philosophical. The philosophical underpinnings of happiness are well documented in Buddhism, the works of great philosophers and the economists. For the sake of debate we could go on discussing this aspect and of course there are merits in pursuing such a discussion. This debate is for the academics and researchers who also have the responsibility to see through that their findings are communicated effectively to the people. But for the majority of the people in the world, philosophy is a complex subject and many (including me) do not have the time to dabble in it.

Let us not make GNH utterly complex but recognise that the problem it tries to address is a practical one – the problems of conventional development where we have externalised costs (environment, psychological, societal, health etc) to the society. Seen in this perspective, GNH is not the end but only a means to an end-state where we have the infrastructure, systems and processes in place which would enable our people, companies and the Government to make choices and decisions in consonance with our values and culture without externalising costs.

For GNH to be effective, what we need is a practical approach.

According to the survey Gasa is the happiest place in Bhutan. But are they aware of many things we as human beings are capable of - intellectually and materially? Are they informed of the choices that they can/could have in life? Do they know the choices available to other villages and towns in Bhutan? If knowing all of these, their responses do not change - then our approach is right. Otherwise we might be following ourselves. I neither see the domains/indicators approach which say that a class 12 education is adequate to be happy when the aspirations of our supposedly GNH experts who want a different level of exposure and education for their children as fair nor practical.

If GNH has failed it is not because of where we are as a society as down2earth contends. It is an easy excuse as is the blame he apportions on the civil servants. I think we are a highly capable society and this is demonstrated by the immense progress we have made over many centuries. If we really need to understand the problems in operationalising GNH, it is inevitable that we look to the people who have taken ownership of the concept, the GNH experts and the academics and the institutions that have been established to operationalise GNH within the Government and take it to the communities. May be there is some justification when some people feel that GNH has been hijacked.

I agree with a lot of commentators that the time for experiments, conferences and philosophical debates is long over. We urgently need some real leadership on this.

Faltering steps towards IT Hood

2009-12-06T23:07:00.003+06:00

Our four business process outsourcing (BPO) centers are currently being supported by the Government. Since 2007, only one has made a profit of Nu. 10,000 last month and all of them face considerable losses this year. However they still maintain that they expect the industry to take off and be profitable.

I have the a lot of respects for such displays of optimism. But there must come a time when these BPOs ask themselves - is this a sector where they can really excel and where Bhutan has a competitive advantage? The problems seem to be numerous. In addition to the lack of skills and infrastructure, they are dependent on companies in India to source business for them. Their profitability depends hugely on the leverage they have on the Indian partners.

Surely - faltering signs in our aspirations to become a regional IT hub. But these problems also provide some very good lessons for our Government to ponder over and start addressing them. They have huge implications on DHI's proposed investment in the Thimphu TechPark.

Is DHI still confident that this is a good investment and that it will generate a decent return on the investments? DHI will be investing Nu. 250m together with another company in this venture and they still do not have any committments from any IT companies.

Economics, India, Books and Business Summit - Readings

2009-12-02T13:12:00.000+06:00

Economics Vs. Politics (Ludwig von Mises Institute)
Five things I do everyday (Donald Trump Blog)
Land of Eastern Promise (Economist)
Books of the Year (FT)
Global Business Summit - Talks, Videos and Notes on a range of subjects (Harvard)

From Brazil - A GNH Inspiration

2009-12-01T12:35:00.011+06:00

Man has pursued happiness for thousands of years. Because it is subjective and difficult to define and quantify, no society has adopted it as a measure of prosperity and progress. We, as a nation, in adopting Gross National Happiness (GNH) as our development philosophy, have arguably inspired many individuals, organisations and countries to look at similar indicators to measure human development. We certainly deserve credit for taking the lead in developing an approach which is balanced and cognizant of the social, environmental and psychological costs of aggressive economic growth.

In the last few years - we renamed our Planning Commission as the Gross National Happiness Commission (GNHC) and the Centre of Bhutan Studies (CBS) devised metrics to quantify GNH which included nine domains and 72 variables. While the impact of the former (renaming) on planning processes is suspect, the latter has hugely contributed to the confusion among the Bhutanese.

Contrast these with what the Brazilians have done thousands of miles away - A cosmetics company and a village function based on the principles of GNH and a university offers a GNH course. Seeing GNH in action, it must have been a challenge to report only two achievements from Bhutan. So I can very well understand why our Lyonchhoen’s trip to Brazil for the 5^th International GNH conference was a ~~humbling~~ learning experience.

This has visibly excited our Lyonchhoen and the delegation has already decided to form a core group. But before we embark on any projects inspired by the Brazil experience, it would be good to understand where we are in translating the GNH principles into practice.

While sceptics selectively quote many numbers (poverty, sanitation, literacy rate, etc.) to point that GNH hasn’t worked, it helps to remember that modern development in Bhutan began just a few decades ago. According to the World Bank, life expectancy at birth is 66yrs (it was only 47 yrs in 1985), around 60% of the Bhutanese are literate and over 80% have access to improved water source. More Bhutanese lead healthier lives and transportation and communication infrastructures connect greater numbers every day. GDP is expected to grow at around 6.4% till 2011. We have made and continue to make significant progress in all these areas. In fact, our achievements are comparable and even better than those of other countries with income and human development levels similar to us.

Our Government could claim to have already operationalised GNH for many years now. But more needs to be done.

We could be more successful if we can improve on our little understanding of GNH. Those who know something about GNH hold divergent views which not only encourage good debate but also add to the confusion. Many online posts illustrate this as do these two recent op-eds (courtesy Kuensel) . In addition, majority of our people who live in the villages neither identify with an over-riding national philosophy nor care about an aggregate number. What matters to them are real tangible changes on the ground like education, schools, clean water, etc. which will enable them to lead easier lives.

There is an immediate need to clarify and enunciate the idea of GNH in a way everybody understands and embed it within the initiatives of the Government. The key is to distil the principles into simple concepts which will demonstrate how GNH would better and impact their lives. I find it easier to explain that GNH is just a tool to clearly identify the needs of the community and help allocate funds and resources. It is time CBS realise that what works in engaging external partners and academics during international conferences doesn’t work for our villagers.

But just spreading an idea is not good enough. An espoused theory should be followed by a credible action. This is the reason why some educated people feel that GNH is just words. To gain traction and credibility, every initiative, every statement and every decision of the Government should reflect and reinforce the principles of GNH. These must manifest in good quality infrastructure, efficient systems and effective processes which are people and business friendly. The people must be engaged through constant communication of success stories and lessons learnt. This presentation showing how GNH can be cascaded within different ministries is quite effective.

Currently many parts of our country are recovering from disasters, companies are having a difficult time and driven by record unemployment levels of 4%, the misery index (sum of inflation and unemployment rates) is close to 7%. This index is expected to grow higher in the next few months as inflation picks up in India. The Brazil conference has also caused some debate and generated interest among the people. Now is indeed an opportune time for the Lyonchhoen to direct his new found enthusiasm in putting his words into action, silence detractors and take GNH to the people.

Past Posts on GNH can be found here (or you can use click the Happiness Label to access them. Scroll down the page to read older posts)

GNH, Forests - Readings

2009-11-30T14:22:00.002+06:00

PM's keynote address at the Brazil GNH Conference (Cabinet Secretariat)
PM's keynote address on "Cultivating Good Water" in Brazil (Cabinet Secretariat)
A realisation that we have some way to go in terms of GNH (Kuensel)
Protecting the Forests, In Hopes of payback (NYT)
Measuring What Matters (Economist)

Expensive Empty Spaces

2009-11-29T23:37:00.009+06:00

I visited a friend in his office last week. Apart from his table and the guest chairs, he had a file rack and a printer. I thought that his office room would be more well utilised if he had two more individuals to share the room with. He is guilty of wasting Government resources. But he isn't the only one. This is common in many of our offices especially in Thimphu.

Whatever the reasons - unused and empty spaces are a waste of space and resources. In addition it costs a a lot of money for their maintenance and upkeep. We would spend close to Nu 5.5 billion which is almost one-fifths of the total budget outlay this year alone on these. Somebody might say that this also covers vehicles and office equipment - but I reply that they are no different. They are either misused or not used optimally.

I see opportunities for our Government to carry out an audit of workspace utilisation and put in measures to ensure that our office buildings (including the equipments) are optimally used.. Start off from the bosses (I hear that some of them have altar rooms). This will give the initiative credibility and positively impact everybody including those who have to accommodate a new colleague or share some resources like the printer.

But for some time, the Government shouldn't give into any proposals of grand designs from new departments or agencies.

Finding sources of growth

2009-11-24T23:45:00.005+06:00

As the graphs below show our projected GDP growth for the 10th five year plan is 7.7%. The Government's target is 9% since this growth would enable us to achieve our targeted levels of poverty reduction.

Figure - 4.1 (from the 2009-2010 Budget Report 54)

Chart 4.1 (10th Plan Document Vol 1, Page 61)

So how realistic are the chances that our economy will grow by at least 7.7% in the next four years?

Our economy grew only by 5% in 2008 - an evidence that we are not insulated from any global events and any arguments against liberalisation and our integration with the global trading system doesn't hold water. We have been negotiating with the WTO for sometime now and our markets are opening up to foreign investments. Our ability to grow and derive benefits from globalisation and increased competition will depend on how our Government manages this process in the next few years.

There is a definite need to vitalise our economy by encouraging entrepreneuship and growth of SMEs. We need no measurements to determine that we are not very productive. The Government should drive initiatives to improve our productivity levels and make our products and services competitive within and outside Bhutan. There will be little growth without these improvements. Initiatives like the Enterprise Act and the new economic policy should be delievered with a greater urgency in shorter turnaround times to have any meaningful impact.

Of course - we can always have a peak in our GDP growth like in 2007 (19.7%) every once in a while when we commission a hydroelectric project. But depending on one sector is too risky and 11 too many. It is time that we identify four to six (potential) strengths as an economy and leverage them. There is a better chance that we can become a world class player in those areas which will ensure us sustainable growth and development.

The Agenda Behind Closed Doors

2009-11-19T23:55:00.001+06:00

So what is the agenda behind the doors?

During this session of the NA, the following bills will be discussed and passed -

The Civil Service Bill 2009 - Revised since the last session of the NA, this bill will provide the legal framework for an independent, apolitical and highly efficient civil service in Bhutan.

The Standards Bill 2009 - Enabling the Government to establish an infrastructure to develop standards for goods and services, and in the long run ensure their quality.

The Royal Monetary Authority Bill 2009

The Tobacco Control Bill 2009

Entitlement and Service Condition Bill for the Holders of Constitutional Offices of Bhutan, 2009

Marriage (Amendment) Bill, 2009

Also on the agenda is to ratify the SAARC Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters. Of interest will be the questions to the Prime Minister and the different ministries. Since there are no specific agenda on disasters and various economic reforms (FDI, etc.), I hope these will be adequately covered in the Q&A.

The Anti-Corruption Annual Report will be presented on 2nd December. By the way - we have become more corrupt and are now ranked 49 in the latest edition of the Corruptions Perceptions Index published by the Transparency International.

In addition there will be discussions on the only two questions submitted by the local government.

Our Camera Shy MPs

2009-11-19T23:11:00.004+06:00

It insults my common sense and intelligence when one of our MPs say that live TV coverage doesn't allow NA members to concentrate or contribute to the discussion of bills. Such absurdity must be false and it is worse than giving no reasons at all. This reminds me of a quote by Abraham Lincoln - ""Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

But if it is true - it seriously brings into question the capabilities of our MPs, and with or without TV, their contributions may not matter. I have always thought our MPs to be fairly well-informed and intelligent.

With very little common sense, one can see the benefits of live coverage -

The people would be able to follow and understand the discussions on some of the bills.
This is an opportunity to see their elected representatives contribute to the nation through debates and discussions - an integral process in any democracy
Finally - also an opportunity for the MPs to demonstrate to their constituents that their trust and confidence aren't misplaced.

Whatever, such episodes embarrass me and also diminish the respect that I have for our elected representatives.

A selection of my recent readings

2009-11-10T23:30:00.001+06:00

- Can Capitalism Survive (Ludvig Von Mises Institute)
- Selling to the Bottom of the Pyramid - A conversation with C.K. Prahalad (Knowledge@Wharton)
- How do entrepreneurs identify new ideas (Knowledge@Wharton)
- Power can diminish perception and perspective (Kellogg Insight)
- Some people find happiness in stress and risk (FT Management Blog)
- Corporate Social Responsibility and Returns for the company (Random Rantings by Freek Vermeulen)

Rich Pickings and Beyond

2009-11-06T23:30:00.008+06:00

Close to 1000 graduates will be writing the civil service examinations soon. In Bhutan, without any doubts, the civil service remains the preferred choice for many talented graduates. Recruitment is not a problem at all for the RCSC. But this is just the first step.

The challenges lie in how their talents and expectations are managed over the years. In the long run, opportunities for career development, professionalism and effective performance management often become more important than a secure routine job. These have an impact on their motivation and performance, and often lead to talent leaving the civil service - a growing problem.

RCSC has measures to address such issues but the real test and success would be to develop a model where no rules and regulations are required to retain talent. The position classification system provides some elements for such a model. What form and shape our civil service assumes in the near future will depend entirely on RCSC's ability to implement it.

Related Reading -

A conversation starter on motivating people from McKinsey Quarterly

An excellent article on public-service careers in the Economist

and of course some of my past posts

Car Tax Again

2009-11-06T14:26:00.011+06:00

We have been on this for more than a year. A proper conclusion in sight.

I guess not -

Another car tax story today and more dithering from the Government. A clear demonstration of our incapability to get a proper handle on anything. We deserve less experiments and more tangible decisions.

Related Posts - Of cars and information

Some Readings

2009-11-04T14:12:00.002+06:00

From the Economist on our neighbours and promoting entrepreneurship -

1. Himalayan Histrionics on the border disputes between India and China

2. India and Capital Flows

3. Schumpeter : On promoting entrepreneurship - Israel is the country to emulate.

What the Bhutan Times episode tells us

2009-11-01T00:02:00.008+06:00

As new papers were established in the last few years, all of us celebrated the growth of media in Bhutan. And in all the frenzy and excitement, the papers seem to have forgotten that they are a business. With five papers and almost a stagnant readership, the competition for ad revenues and circulation is very intense - and it means tremendous pressure on the management of our media organisations.

I don't know if this contributed to the recent situation at Bhutan Times (BT) but I find it interesting for the following reasons -

1. A glimpse of leadership style of a Bhutanese CEO which is authoritarian. Authoritarian management is very much passé. Except in the military, it rarely works. It stifles creativity, de-motivates people and eventually leads to the failure of an organisation. We are in the 21st century and every manager has to change with the times.

2. BT seems to have failed to identify and manage their most valuable assets - the people who write for the paper. There may have been issues but good managers find ways to engage with them and manage their expectations. As a business, if you are unable to manage your key assets, success will elude you.

3. And the most interesting piece of communication from the CEO of BT - which demonstrates little respect for the stakeholders and little grasp and control of the situation/crisis. It doesn't help in any way. A harangue like that is unprofessional and can only be tolerated in Bhutan. I definitely wouldn't work for somebody with a similar temperament.

However, in the whole process - the BT brand has been marred badly and I can only wish BT good luck. I remain most glad that I am not a shareholder of this paper.