Emotions in Business life

I have heard of a story ( apparently true) that a famous builder in Mumbai India hired an American as part of procurement which all of us are sure is an extremely critical function in a real estate firm.

This American then found a supplier from Pakistan who could export cement to India at a landing price that is half of the local produce!!!!

Can you imagine an Indian doing this? What gives? Emotion taking over in business decision making.

What an Indian would consider unpatriotic an American finds a simple clear business decision.

Leaving out the countries above, the point to glean is the aspect of emotion clouding or decision making.

Some times a fresh neutral perspective is most needed!!

Future proof skilling

Some shocking revelations first.

About 47% of employment in the US is likely to become extinct due to technology replacing them in the next decade or two. 

Over the last century, mostly three items' prices went up in real terms- housing , education and health care. Pretty much everything else had its prices come down in real terms.

Implications?

Skilling for the future is significantly impacted by the above. Most or at least half of what we do today will get automated. And if your skilling is in an area of declining prices, you are bound to face the heat sooner than later.

Is your skilling relevant to the three areas of increasing prices as listed above?

How flexible are you to reskill if your current one becomes extinct?

Most importantly, can you leverage the future's new opportunities as they appear instead of clinging onto the old and dying?

How 'Big Data' person are you?

Technology tries to mimic and automate human behaviour and those who get it right, succeed!

In a sense, the key attribute of 'Big Data' is key to success for you as a leader, human being, team player...

Big Data looks at disparate , unstructured data from multiple sources to identify patterns, deductions, conclusions or insights.

If you need to be successful, you need to do the same - connect data points from multiple sources/instances/events/contexts to bring together a perspective/insight that nobody has seen before. 

The more you master this to an art form, the more successful you would be , in any endeavour - a job, a business, an initiative/program or a project.

Go ahead and acquire/sharpen your 'Big Data' skills - not the technology but the underlying concept!

Value and Risk

Is your proposition addressing value or risk or both ?

In today's world of increasing uncertainity, regulatory compliance, failed deliveries on commitments, customers are bearing you on risk first and value later. 

Who or what among my options is the least risky? Can manage my risks best? Can manage my organisational risks best? 

These are top of mind compared to value and RoI for simple reason that no one faces a regulator, auditor , scrutiny for lower value/RoI delivered.

Is your risk proposition stronger than your value proposition?

What defines you?

What defines you?

A title, a role , numbers, teams , colleagues , superiors , team members ....?

You start much earlier and end much later than any of the above.

So what / who defines you? 

100ft vs 50000ft

Is it possible for someone to have both these views? At 100ft and at 50000ft? 

You miss the details at 50000ft and you miss the big picture at 100ft. Both are needed for success.

How do you get both the views and get the balance ?

One way to do this is first get the hundred feet view and then check to see whether it meets all the objectives and requirements. You need to be objective and dispassionate to ensure 'proper' checking.

You can also do the 50,000 feet view and then get into details to make sure all the objectives and requirements are met.

The typical mistake people do is take one view and ASSUME that it meets the requirements of the other view. More often than not it doesn't and we end up finding it the hard way!

As one looks at taking bigger responsibilities , achieving this balance becomes more and more critical.

Initially you can request your friends or colleagues to help you get this balance so that over time you inculcate this habit.

 Remember! Plans that meet only one view's requirements are bound to FAIL!

Why successful people fail?

Why do people successful in one organisation fail in the next ?

What makes someone successful ? the individual or the system ? Or combination?

Organisations hire people for certain skills and strengths. But many a time it's the combination of skills from multiple people and ecosystem that makes a an individual successful.

People tend to have an exaggerated sense of self importance and a lower sense of ecosystem contribution to success. This is what makes them fail or underperform in other ecosystems.

That reverse also happens. 

Somebody who underperforms in an ecosystem may perform much better in another.

It is important to understand is dynamic before making deductions on one's critical success factors.