When Leadership Is Missing …

Being part of a corporation or an organization exposes us to a particular culture as a result of the incumbent leadership. When the leadership is not leading comprehensively, it is easy to feel helpless as followers, especially when the human component of the organization is neglected.

Generally, we do not know that something is missing until we are told that it is missing or we are sensing the adverse effect of the absence. Personal experiences working for both a non-profit organization and a corporation have taught me elements of a healthy, motivating leadership style from the fact that those elements are missing.

The symptoms of poor leadership are usually suffered first by the followers of the leadership – for example, lack of motivation, boredom, and declining productivity. Then, talks among followers begin, expressing discontent toward the failures of their leaders. If discontent becomes unbearable, followers decide to leave and find other opportunities.

Leaders missing in action, however, deserve second chances. Followers have the power to influence, despite having to endure the shortcomings of the leadership. Each follower who believes in the company’s vision should not be afraid to make right what is within his/her scope of work. If success is obtained, then leaders eventually will have to acknowledge it, and possibly listen to their followers who contribute to the success and adopt the methods of achieving it, including leadership methods that they have failed to implement.

When we are followers in an organization where leadership is failing, these basic attitudes of followers may help turn around the circumstances:

1. Do not play the blame game
It is so easy to point out the faults of others. Followers who are generally greater in number than leaders can easily point a finger at the failing leadership. At the same time, leaders can also find scapegoats to hold them accountable for the dysfunctioning organization. This blame game does not help anybody improve their work. Leaders and followers should find a common ground and recognize the fact that they are a team working towards the same goals, then resolve any hidden conflicts or discontent and rebuild trust among themselves. It is never a win-win situation when the name of the game is pointing a finger at each other.

2. Peacemaking
A failing leadership usually involves hurt feelings and broken relationships. It always takes two to generate a conflict. Any individual in an organization who is aware of or involved in a conflict has some power to act and help find a solution. Followers and leaders have the same share of the responsibility to speak up when they sense miscommunication or discontent. It is easier to create superficial peace where conflicts are swept under the rug or talked about in hush-hush. It is much more rewarding to make peace proactively. Because relationships can break down, and then heal. Apology and reconciliation is key to strong human bonds.

3. Identify failures and learn
A successful organization is one that dares to put a spotlight on their failures and learn the wisdom. Followers of a faulty leadership often feel the impact of these failures first before their leaders, and thus, can initiate talks to point them out to their leaders. Pointing out mistakes is not the end; it is just the means to improve. These mistakes shall not go to waste and be utilized as learning points for the team, in order to not repeat them and innovate when finding solutions. There is no better teacher than experience, and failure.

While leaders sometimes fail, followers can do their part to fix what is broken and fill in what is missing.

The Spikey Boy

I know a little kid with a long spikey hair on his forehead who likes to run really fast and says hi to every person he meets every day. When he says hi, he never waits for that person to say hi back; however, if that person says back to him, he will stop running and always have something interesting to say. Just for glimpse of a second, if I don’t say hi back to him, he will continue running and greet every person he bumped into. Another interesting fact about this boy is I don’t see him every day, and sometime when I do see him from afar, I’m too busy doing what I do and miss him in just milliseconds.

This kid’s name is Opportunity. Often, people miss pronounce his name as Luck.

Personally, I never believe in luck. Luck is just the matter of taking the right action when opportunity comes at you. For example, let’s look back to August 19^th, 2004. Where was your money on this day and what ran into your mind when Google announced its IPO for $85. If you bought the stock, you would have experienced an increase of 487% on your investment by 2007. Crazy right?

Luck = Opportunity + Preparation

On that morning, I wished I had the money to put in the investment. I wanted it, but I wasn’t prepared.

When you see that little kid named opportunity, make sure you say hello and grab him by his hair on his forehead, because when he passes you, all you can see is just his back and it’s already too late. But moreover, you have to be ready and prepared what that boy will ask you.

“Good luck waits to come to that man who accepts opportunity” – from the book “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George S Clason.

Think big,

Jo

So... Really... What is the Problem?

I was reading about this organization called KickStart.  I think they are doing an amazing job being social entrepreneur.  What makes them amazing in my opinion is that they are working smart.  What they are doing right now is helping millions of people in Africa out of poverty, by promoting sustainable economic growth and employment creation in Kenya and other countries. They develop and promote technologies that can be used by dynamic entrepreneurs to establish and run profitable small scale enterprises.

However, their 5 steps process is what I think make them stand out.
They started with Identifying Opportunities (I know I called it Problem in the title, but that's just to get your attention...).  They did not just go ahead and decide what's the best for the people in Africa, thinking that they have the best solution in mind right away.  They went to Africa and identified the opportunities.  They created a business model where poor people in Kenya can start a business and sustain it.  They found that it is easiest to start a business that initially sells products or services to neighbors or in the local village with low initial investment and recoverable within 6 months.  They also recognized that most people in the community are farmers.

The second step is Design Products.  In designing technologies for the world’s poor, there is too often a focus on developing things that "we" think "they" need. Or worse, an organization develops a technology to address a problem that they have defined, without fully understanding local culture.  They recognized that poor people often time has lots of time and effort too, therefore designing tools that will save them time and effort will devalue the tools and make them poorer.  So they look for tools that will allow a person to turn their time and labor into cash.  A design criteria was created for the tools to better meet the needs.  The tools have to be income generating, quick return in investment, affordable, energy-efficient, ergonomic and safe to use, portable, easy to install and to use, strong and durable, designed for ease for manufacturing and culturally acceptable in order to make it to production.  One example of their product is the MoneyMaker hip pump.  The pump sells for about $30, is very light (less than 10 pounds), and can irrigate an acre. A great deal of work went into designing a super efficient valve box, but the genius of the design is a simple pivot hinge.  By attaching a “Hand Pump” to a hinged platform, they’ve changed the body mechanics, allowing users to use their leg, body weight, and momentum, rather than the small muscles of the upper back and shoulders. This allows the pump be easily used to irrigate an acre or more.  KickStart sold about 23,200 pumps as of the beginning of this year to increase net farm income by 1000% on average.

Next step is Establish a Supply Chain.  They chose to use a high volume (mass quantity) and centralized manufacturing to establish a profitable supply chain where everyone, including KickStart, makes money on each tool sold.  Then they recruit the existing local wholesalers, distributors and retail shops selling seeds, fertilizer and other farm inputs that already part of the community and know the local customers.  KickStart also chose not to giveaway their tools to the poor for sustainability.  As long as there is demand for the tools, the factory, the wholesalers and retailers will have an interest in ensuring the tools stay available.

Now, after they found the people that could make and sell the tools, they need to Develop the Market to generate demands.  Any great product without good marketing to generate product awareness to show its use and value is useless.  The pump is priced at $30 which is a lot of money for the poor so this generate risk for initial acceptance, a carefully crafted marketing strategy has to be developed.  They chose the brand name “MoneyMaker” because that is a poor person’s greatest need, which is a way to make money.KickStart works very hard to ensure that their products live up the name.  Next, they change the perception about farming, that it is no longer just a dirty, literally, work anymore, but farming can actually be a successful business. They launched a comprehensive marketing campaign built on the message, “Farming is My Business,” to link farming with success.  They have many sales force to do products demonstration, let potential customers try the products before they buy them and they did pumping competition to generate buzz of excitement for the products.  All these hard work is necessary in order to gain product acceptance in the community.  Once they are accepted buy the community, like in bicycles, KickStart can ease the marketing effort.

The last step is Measure and Move Along.  KickStart’s model is based on the Diffusion of Innovation theory which when a new product is first introduced into any new market, sales are few and the costs per sale are high. In fact, as the market is building, items are sold at a loss until the market reaches a “tipping point” then the cost will drop to zero.  The more radically new the product is, the more expensive it is to make these early sales. In the private sector, these early losses are subsidized by investors, similarly KickStart uses donor funds the same way a for-profit would use venture capital.  They took the time and effort to measure success and monitor the entrepreneurs progress.  Once KickStart reached the tipping point, KickStart will make a profit on every sale. They will reinvest these to develop new technologies and enter new markets so that they will get millions of people out of poverty.

I hope we can learn from KickStart, their heart for the poor, their ingenuity, their willingness to listen to the existing culture and to use it as part of the solution to poverty. 

So... Really... What is the Problem?  I mean the opportunity.

The Dream Chaser?Why Not!

Remember when we were a kid when we like to day dream that someday we will become a doctor, a president, a teacher?

Do you remember yours?

I remember mine, a Technologist.

As of this second I’m still living this dream that someday I will have major contribution in making human's lives to be better thru technology.

Not until last year that I started to chase my dream. Before making my own IT Company (GATS Consulting), I was working in a Marketing company as a salesman. I was doing excellent in my career and got promoted after only 4 months to oversee the whole data management for that company. Everything was great; only one thing was missing....

I’m living someone else’s dream, not mine.

I believe that every people in this world are given the opportunity to pursue whatever they want that will make their life happier. The problem is, some people are too afraid to take the big leap.

The passage below can be found on the US’ Declaration of Independence

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”

If you watch the movie “The Pursuit of Happiness” played by Will Smith, there is one scene that also triggered me to decide to make my own company, the basketball court scene. Here is what Chris Garner (Will Smith) said:

“Don’t ever let somebody tell you, you can’t do something. You got a dream, you got to protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they want to tell you, you can’t do it. You want something, go get it..Period!” Here is the Link to the scene

I’m living my dream now and this is my pursuit of happiness!

What about you?

-Jo-

And The Journey Begins...

I believe it was Thomas Edison that said "Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress."  We at MITRA are plowing ahead with discontent for progress.  We hope that this blog will be an incubator for future entrepreneurs, a place to learn, to listen, to get to know each other and to share ideas with one another.  I leave you with a quote, to encourage all of us write the journey of our lives boldly...

"Write every day, line by line, page by page, hour by hour. Do this despite fear. For above all else, beyond imagination and skill, what the world asks of you is courage, courage to risk rejection, ridicule and failure. As you follow the quest for stories told with meaning and beauty, study thoughtfully but write boldly. Then, like the hero of the fable, your dance will dazzle the world."    - Robert McKee