Archive for March, 2005
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 20 Mar 2005, 9:48 PM - 3 Comments
When I first heard it on Drudge Report, I could not believe it. I had to check the news again to confirm. It’s true. GM is planning to cut its North American white collar work force as deep as 28% in some functions. It’s scary!
Gone are the days where we could join a company and plan to retire over there. No job is safe unless one starts to distinguish himself or herself constantly and continues to add value. The heat is on.
I think this should serve as a wake up call for most of the white collar workers. What do you all think?
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 20 Mar 2005, 7:58 AM - 1 Comment
What we know is important. Of course, we all know that who we know is
more important than what we know. What is also important is how we know
who we know. This is where the membership comes in.
We are not revisiting the MBA discussion. But the MBA alumni networks
are quite powerful. That is one example. There are many such membership
opportunities available. The right place can be, well, a golf club
where the people that we want to meet hang out.
Some of these memberships cost a ton of money but I think they are more of investments than expeneses. The ROI for the right membership can be huge.
My personal example – membership with TEC,
a network of CEOs worldwide, the largest of its kind. When I became a
member in 2003, I never imagined the impact it would have on our
business. It has been phenomenal.
Each one of us are unique. For me, TEC was great and the timing
couldn’t have been better. You have to figure out what the right
memberships are at this point in time in your life. What “clubs” should
you belong to – to take your life to the next level? It may take a
while to research and find out or you may already know it but have not
taken the time to pursue the membership seriously.
The right memberships can payoff big time. All the best.
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sat 19 Mar 2005, 7:43 AM - Leave Comment
At first, I thought the title should be “Make effective decisions” or
“Be a great decision maker” but I decided against it as our personal
values are the foundation on which we make our decisions.
We all know that values are important. Whether we want to believe it or
not, we all have a set of values. Guaranteed! Values, in the basic
terms are deeply held beliefs of what is important for us, Values state
what matters most in our lives.
Values may change over time but it’s important that we know what they
are at this point in time. Interestingly, very few people spend their
time trying to identify their values. Whenever we make any significant
decisions, it will be based on our values so it’s important that we
know what those are.
There are so many resources available on the Internet to help you
identify your core values. Do a search on google for “personal values”
and you should see a few websites popping up.
When we attended the The Leadership Challenge workshop a few days ago (from Bluepoint Leadership)
we went through a values exercise that was simple and effective. There
were a set of cards (each one with a value such as Achievement, Wealth,
Relationships etc.) and the process was like this:
a. Make three piles of cards. First pile with all the cards that we
think are very important, second pile with cards that matter but not as
important as the ones in the first pile, third pile with cards that
didn’t matter much to us
b. Put the third pile away
c. Revisit second pile and move the cards either to the first pile or third pile
d. Now, the first pile has a set of cards with values that mattered
most to us. Our job is to come up with five cards from this pile.
Follow whatever model that you like, but please do come up with your
own list. There is no “right” set of values. They are your values and
not knowing what they are may put you at a disadvantage.
One of my close friends has “Family” on the top of the charts and
another close friend has “Wealth” on the top. It’s very easy to guess
their decision making patterns.
What are yours?
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 17 Mar 2005, 9:53 PM - 16 Comments
Seth posted an interesting article a few days ago on his blog suggesting that it may be better to read a right set of books instead of attending an MBA program. So many people wanted to know the answer to the million dollar question – “What are those right set of books?” No one right answer, of course!
This initiated a set of posts by a few others and all of them were interesting.
There were even listings of books that could substitute an MBA program on variety of topics. The lists were great and were worth taking a look.
a) The Josh Kaufman Personal MBA program
b) The 30 Book MBA in entrepreneurship
This made me think about the whole thing - to invest in an MBA or to not invest in an MBA.
However, the consultant in me says the answer is “It depends” and, I also question the question itself. I think we are asking the wrong question.
I have seen people with MBAs making the most out of what they got out of it and I have seen people with MBAs almost working as if it added zero value to them and there are folks that are in between.
The same applies to reading books. I have seen people reading a few books and applying what they learnt very well and I have seen people reading a ton of books and not appplying a thing that they learnt out of them and there are folks that are in between.
I have also seen people with MBAs and read a lot and you know all the combinations by now.
The keyword for me is leverage. MBA can be an education that someone can greatly leverage. Some of the things that immediately come to mind:
a) Networking
b) Access to brilliant minds (through lectures and other events)
c) Awareness – Well, we may not use everything that we learn there but it’s good for us to know that these things exist
d) Seal of approval – It’s an entry criteria in many places
e) Structured thinking – as compared to “on the job learning”
d) Resources to test things out in a controlled environment
One could argue that everything above could also be achieved by reading a few books. We know that – that may be stretching a bit. There was also an argument about losing time. I don’t agree with that either. What about opportunities and possibilities that may be created because you are with a diverse set of folks during your MBA. During these discussions there may be sparks of creativity that might lead you to create something huge (like Yahoo! or Google!)
The point is not to get carried away on a point of view of whether an MBA is required or not required. The key is to see whether we are leveraging all our resources to the maximum possible. MBA is one such resource? The right question is not whether you have it or not. The question should be – if you do have an MBA, do you know how to leverage it right? What good is a great network if we don’t know how to leverage it well?
Same with reading. What good is reading if we don’t apply what we learn from it?
Coming back to time saving (2 years) instead of an MBA, do you know how to make the most of those two years? If you don’t, I would argue that MBA may be good. May be that will fill in some gaps. Who knows?
In life there are moments that present an opportunity with or without MBA. Are we ready for those moments and do we know to how to identify them and leaverage them when they present themselves?
What about success with or without MBA. A quick scan will show that people have succeeded without an MBA.Would their success be bigger with an MBA. No right answer. Whatever be the answer, my question would be “How do we know?”
Take Azim Premji, of Wipro (no MBA) an Indian IT giant who took over Wipro when he was 21 and grew it to a $1.76 Billion corporation. Could an MBA have made a bigger difference? May be OR may be not!!
Comments are welcome.
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Thu 17 Mar 2005, 4:54 PM - 4 Comments
When describing why he is so successful, Michael Jordan once mentioned
that his secreat was to demand more from himself than anybody else ever
will. Michael Jordan obviously sets higher standards for himself.
In order to good results, we need to set the right expectations and
exceed them consistently. However, if we want outstanding results, we
need to operate at higher personal standards than what others expect of
us.
Let’s take an olympic event. We remember the gold, silver and bronze
winners but not the person in the fourth place. The difference may be
very small but the person in the fourth place is rarely talked about.
Difference between good and outstanding again.
When you send the next email, stop for a minute and think about what
the recipient will think about your standards from the style and
content of the email. What could you do to raise your standards in a
simple act of sending an email? It may take you a few minutes more but
it may be worth spending that extra time..
Posted under Distinguish yourself, Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Tue 15 Mar 2005, 9:13 AM - Leave Comment
Whenever I ask the question “Do you like surprises?” most people say
“yes” even before they blink. Most of us hear the question as “Do
you like a positive surprise?” and the answer, of course, should be
“yes”
However, nobody likes a surprise that is shocking or brings sad news or
just plain negative. Tom Evslin has a great post with the title Managing Programming for CEOs Part 1 – Decompiling Programmer-Speak.
Tom talks about what programmers say and what the managers should
interpret from it. I am of the firm belief that if we have to
successfully manage projects, we have to successfully manage
expectataions. Falling short of expectations is a negative surprise and
we know that everybody loves a surprise but nobody likes or wants a negative surprise.
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Mon 14 Mar 2005, 9:29 AM - Leave Comment
Ordinary people can do extraordinary things. Sometimes by accident but
most of the times by design!! I have always believed that remarkable
organizations are built by remarkable people. The question is how do we
groom remarkable people? In other words, how can one become remarkable.
One simple way is to raise above the commodity crowd and distinguishing
oneself.
This is the topic of my ChangeThis manifesto 25 Ways to Distinguish Yourself. For those of you who have been on my blog have seen a glimpse of this already.
I love the concept of ChangeThis. If you like the topic, please vote for my manifesto and encourage me to write it.
Have a great week ahead.
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Sun 13 Mar 2005, 8:21 PM - Leave Comment
Rob Ryan (Of Ascend Communications fame) has written a great book that every entrepreneur must read called Smartups
The core of the book is about business models. Rob describes the business model as a sunflower. The analogies are:
a) core competency as the center of the flower,
b) various products and services branching out as petals of the flower and most important
c) assumptions on which the model is based as the stem of the flower
It’s an interesting model. If you are an owner of the business or in
way influencing where your business is going – it may be a good idea to
view this via the sunflower model and check on what assumptions the
business is based on. We know that if the stem is cut off, the flower
dies. Applying this, if the underlying assumptions are not valid, there
will be business challenges that we should be prepared to handle.
I love the sunflower model because of its simplicity which is a topic in itself (that I will post more in the next few days)
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Fri 11 Mar 2005, 6:50 PM - Leave Comment
Easy to say. Hard to implement but the rewards are sweet!
“Every disciplined effort has multiple rewards”
- Jim Rohn
Posted under Main Page.
By Rajesh Setty on Fri 11 Mar 2005, 6:38 AM - Leave Comment
We all know that assumptions play a major role in our life and our
business. We may not say it but our decisions are greatly influenced by
the assumptions that are held deeply. Once the assumptions are deep, we
may not even know that they are assumptions any more. They become reality for us.
Let me explain with an example. A few of us decided to take our
families on a short trip this weekend. I had to book four hotel rooms
and decided to check out prices at a few travel sites – one of them
being Last Minute Travel.
Interestingly, while the design is great, once you picked the hotel the
pick list for number of rooms had only three choices – 1, 2 or 3 and I
wanted to book 4 rooms. The point is someone out there held an assumption that typically one person may not book more than 3 rooms at a time.
It’s an assumption and I am not saying the assumption is right or wrong
but they made all the design decisions for the business based on this
assumption.
Assumptions have more power than we may ASSUME. Every business is
started based on certain assumptions. Sometimes these assumptions are
wrong and sometimes these are right. Smart businesses adapt and change
and re-invent themselves. If that does not happen, they go down. One
example – remember so many online pet food stores that were founded and
funded based on the assumption that people will order pet food online.
Once in a while, it’s good to check the assumptions that we hold deeply about our life and our business.
Posted under Main Page.
Recent Comments