1. Monkey Business?
Experiment
First, scientists put five monkeys in a cage and at the top
of a ladder they hung a banana; if a monkey climbed the ladder, it was showered
with cold water. Soon the group gave up trying to reach the banana.
Next, the scientists disconnected the cold water and
replaced one of the five monkeys with a new one and as it tried to reach the
banana, the original 4 monkeys pulled it down the ladder.
Result
One by one all the original monkeys were replaced, but none
of them climbed the ladder as they knew they would have been stopped, but not
knowing the exact reason.
Similarities with
humanity
Like the monkeys in the experiment, every culture and
organisation has its own “unwritten rules”, which also have a great influence
on the work environment.
Unfortunately, too often, unwritten rules reinforce negative
attitudes. For example.
1.
Working long hours is more important than
achieving results.
2.
The boss is always right even if he’s wrong.
3.
The customer is king.
Often nobody knows where these rules came from, but it was
observed that new recruits picked them up very quickly, and the way they behave
in the work environment can be the reflection of an organisation’s culture.
Conclusion
Work culture is very effective in enforcing unwritten rules.
2. Manila Calling
The past of the
Philippines
The Philippines is considered a traditionally poor and
conservative country. Emigration
is very common and there were worries that it was slowing the country’s development.
is very common and there were worries that it was slowing the country’s development.
How they changed
the situation
After decades of exporting its labour force, Manila, the
capital, decided to outsource market, encouraging foreign investment. Copying
the Indian call centres’ model, which was decaying (because of less tax breaks and
unreliable infrastructure), it was decided to:
1.
Introduce tax breaks and incentives for telecoms
companies.
2.
Introduce training to help students refine their
language skills.
Results
1.
Revenues of nearly $11billion.
2.
Operators believe that customers are likely to
be more satisfied with the service received from well-educated young Filipinos.
3.
The Philippine government hopes to double the
market in the next five years.
Long term results
Today, in the Philippines, it is much more difficult to find
competent professional figures (engineers, doctors) than help line advisers. As
opposed to India, which is moving upmarket with four million college graduates
a year.
3. Ten tips for creating a career that lights your fire
1. Get to know yourself
Make some self-exploration. Make a list of
things you really enjoy.
2. Brainstorm
Brainstorm ways you could incorporate them
into your life.
3. Explore
Find people who are experts in the areas
you are interested in and ask them about their experiences.
4. Baby steps
Look for baby steps you can take to bring
your passion into your life.
5. Identify your obstacles
Obstacles may be physical or mental.
6. Create a passion posse
Find support in the people around you.
7.
Re
examine your definitions of success and failure
- What is your definition of success? –
Sometimes our culture considers only material accomplishments as success;
unfortunately that obstacles the way of real happiness for many people.
- What is your definition of failure? – If
you try something and it doesn’t work out, is it a failure? Or an opportunity
to learn?
8. Make a plan
Add a structure to something that can seem
undefined.
9. Act today
Do something now that will move you toward your
passion
10. Commit to making it happen
4. Retail finds its new best friend in social media marketing
Differences
between online and physical shopping
A purchase in a mall leaves the retailer with no idea on
what products the customer prefers or if he would ever enter that store again.
On the other hand, a single online purchase will be followed
by an uninterrupted series of personalised offers.
The problem
Until very recently, these differences were a disadvantage
for offline stores, especially when it came to knowing their customers.
How the problem
was resolved
This problem was resolved by taking advantage of the
customer’s addiction with smartphone apps and services. For example:
1.
Facebook
and Foursquare provide offline stores with data on their visitors, by
encouraging users to check in via their apps or allowing them to collect points
and win prizes. This allows stores to track customer behaviour, recognize
returning customers and send them personalized offers.
2.
Barcode
Hero allows customers to win prizes by scanning bar codes in the stores,
which gives a strong chance that they’ll buy the actual product.
Results
After an initial scepticism, today stores are investing in
app-based campaigns and in social media; counting on one of the strongest
motivators in social media: status and identity. For example collecting point
to obtain virtual titles, combines interactive competition and shopping.
5. Our Credo
The Johnson & Johnson group is one of the largest groups
that manufacture health care products. Their Credo has been a model for
corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies.
Originally it
stated that the company had four major responsibilities:
1. To all those people who use their
products
They must strive to reduce their prices and
give their suppliers and distributors an opportunity to make a profit.
2. To their employers
They must respect their dignity and
recognize their merit. Allow them to have a sense of security in their jobs and
ensure that their compensation is fair and working conditions are clean and
safe.
3.
To the
communities in which they live and work
They must encourage improvements and better
health and education, protect the environment and natural resources.
4. To their stockholders
Research must be carried on, mistakes must be
paid for, and reserves must be created to provide for adverse times.
6. Lessons in M&A
More than 1500 mergers and acquisitions are completed every
year worldwide and around half are in the US involving astronomical sums.
Problem
Many mergers result in a loss of value and there’s a 70%
plus failure-rate.
Solution
Every year hundreds of executives attend very expensive
M&A classes which:
1.
Cover all aspects of conception, planning,
negotiation and integration stages.
2.
Illustrate some of the most common acquirer
errors: over-valuation, over-confidence and underestimating the value of the
people in the company just bought.
3.
Give insight on the right and wrong reason
for M&A
-
Good
reasons for M&A
1.
Developing synergies
2.
Making economies of scale
3.
Increasing market share
-
Wrong
reasons for M&A
Involve excessive pride or
arrogance on the part of management:
1.
Overextending the financial, commercial and
human capacity of the organisation.
2.
Following the heart rather than the head.
Because of competition from video games and computers, over
the last three years, the pinball machine manufacturer Eisenhart Games has
developed a profitable market in the Middle-East.
(But) Daryl Vincenti, from Eisenhart Games, says it hasn’t
been easy: they made a lot of mistakes but they surely learned valuable lessons
from them.
For example:
1.
Using a good credit agency to check your
customer’s creditworthiness insures you against non-payments.
2.
Adaptability is important. You should be
flexible and prepared to modify your product to meet local conditions.
3.
You should make a commitment to export but focus
on one market rather than the whole world because you have to put in a
lot of time.
4.
Appearances can be deceptive. Ex: what
seemed to be one man and a camel somewhere out in the desert ended up being
their biggest customer.
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