Keep Your Fighting Spirit, Never Give Up

Kalau kita Google-search ‘semangat, daya juang’ terkait ‘generasi muda, mileneal’ dan ‘masa kini’, banyak sekali rupanya ulasan perihal tema tersebut. Acapkali,  dikaitkan dengan mendorong lebih banyak daya juang generasi muda. Pun sering dilekatkan pada grandiose kebangsaan, bela negara dan sejenisnya. Biasanya, secara klasik dinarasikan tentang ‘semangat 45’, merujuk generasi yang memperjuangkan kemerdekaan Indonesia.

Selayaknya ini dimaknai lebih luas. Pada sekolah dan kampus misalnya, untuk belajar dengan semangat tinggi supaya memahami pengetahuan dan lulus dengan baik. Memperjuangkan dan meniti karir. Menjalankan bisnis secara persisten, jatuh bangun dan maju terus. Kaum mileneal, sesuai dengan jamannya, tentunya punya cara dan gaya tersendiri dalam meniti gelombang kehidupan.  Namun, daya juang adalah sesuatu yang universal yang melintas generasi, jaman dan teknologi.

Menarik kalau kita simak dan belajar dari dunia oleh raga. Klub sepakbola Liverpool, di Inggris, memberikan pesona dan prestasi yang mengagumkan dalam tiga tahun terakhir. Liverpool menjadi juara Liga Inggris dan Liga Eropa yang prestisius pada musim kompetisi 2019 dibawah komando pelatih Jurgen Klopp dari Jerman, yang penuh semangat dan kharismatis. Juga baru saja juara Liga Inggris (yang sekarang menjadi/dinamai Carabao Cup) di Feb 2022.

Pada Liga Champion 2019 piala Eropa, di semi final Liverpool di hancurkan 3-0 oleh Barcelona di Leg-1. Setiap pertandingan, tiap tim berhadapan dengan tim lain sebanyak dua kali – di kandang sendiri dan di kandang lawan. Ini yang dinamai dengan Leg-1 dan Leg-2. Nah, di Leg-1 di Camp Nou, kandang Barcelona, Liverpool sudah kalah telak. Untuk bisa menang dan lolos menuju final, Liverpool mesti menang pada Leg-2 dengan selisih 4 gol ! Mana mungkin ? Lawannya adalah klub super elite Barca dengan super star Lionel Messi. Publik sudah merasa Liverpool akan masuk kotak, meski pendukungnya berharap tipis akan ada keajaiban.  Messi pun juga sudah 'sesumbar' tinggal tunggu final (calon lawan adalah pemenang antara Ajax vs Tottenham) akan bawa piala bergengsi Piala Eropa ini nanti ke Camp Nou, markasnya Barca.

Klopp dalam jumpa pers sadar situasi nya sulit, namun tetap optimis. Dan dengan 'datar' menyatakan The approach is we try to win the game. I thought that makes sense. Hasilnya ? Pada Leg-2 di Anfield – stadion, markas Liverpool: Barca dihajar habis, di permalukan dengan 4-0!  Gol tanpa balas, tanpa penalti. Luar biasa nya : dua striker andalan Liverpool, Mohammad Salah dan Roberto Firmino TIDAK ikut main karena cidera. Salah dan Firmino bersama Sadio Mane adalah 3 penyerang ‘maut’ utama Liverpool. Mo Salah di bangku cadangan menyaksikan dengan senyum pake kaos bertulis Never Give Up. Liverpool di final kemudian menang jadi juara Liga Champion. YNWA - You'll Never Walk  Alone, kata para pendukungnya, lagu yang dijadikan semangat dukungan untuk the Reds (julukan Liverpool). Sementara Lionel Messi tertunduk lesu, dengan suasana muram terlihat pada ruang ganti permain seusai pertandingan.

Tidak kalah luar biasanya, dulu sekali sesuatu yang menakjubkan terjadi pada All England 1974, kompetisi bulu tangkis dunia yang prestisius. Rudy Hartono, pemain legendaris bulu tangkis Indonesia yang berlaga pada pertandingan semi final, melawan Sture Johnson dari Swedia. Pada Set 1, Rudy kalah. Di Set 2, Rudy ketinggalan 1-14! Tinggal satu poin lagi, Rudy akan kalah dan masuk kotak. Penonton dan pendukung Indonesia sudah pasrah.  Hanya keajaiban yang bisa mengubah. Akan tetapi, Rudy tetap semangat: beri saya satu angka lagi. Dengan tekad baja, satu angka ini di akumulasi pelan-pelan dengan sabar dan konsisten. Dan keadaan berbalik. Rudy menang! Pada  penentuan Set 3, Rudy juga menang dan kemudian di final menang jadi Juara All England 7x berturut-turut. Sang Maestro, menjadi teladan luar biasa akan semangat juang, pantang menyerah sampai detik terakhir. Rudy menjadi legenda bulutangkis dengan rekor 8x juara All England (masih menang satu lagi, tapi tidak pada tahun berikutnya), dan belum ada yang meyamainya hingga kini.

So, keep your fighting spirit. Jangan mudah retak. Never Give Up. Great things take time.

Go Slow, Go Fast

I just finished attending a 2-day workshop on capital stewardship today. An internal company session for equipping leaders with a systematic methodology on managing capital investments in light of leadership behaviors, decision making process, and organizational capability.

During a series of business simulations, we were challenged to make good decisons upon a portfolio of project initiatives with financial consequences in the future, conflicting interest of various stakeholders, and needs to comply with regulatory requirements and environmental concerns. Within a limited time constraint, we were pressed to make various decisions.

One of the takeway nuggets from this excersise is Go Slow to Go Fast. On being confronted with pressing situations, in our daily life, we most often go fast trying to solve the problems. This is done without giving enough time upfront for some planning, process organization, and agreed approaches in cases of involving others in the decision making. Quick, quick, quick as timing is part of the game. At the end, we frequently end up with running out of time resolving the issues with a lot of confusing information as things do not get organized neatly and clearly.

It proves to be, on average in general, spending some time upfront on ways and approach to tackle the issues is contributing more to coming up with good decisions: things move faster at subsequent steps, information can be intelligently digested. Time spent is amazingly shorter than otherwise. It's slow at the beginning, but then it's moving much, much faster afterwards. This can be applied to, as simple as, our business meetings: spend intial time to reach an agreed agenda: points to discuss, process to resolve issues, ways to tackle disagreements....prior to adressing the subject matters.

In managing big projects, as we are aware but often neglect, spending enough efforts and time for upfront planning provides solid basis to execution that give more predictable good outcome. Re-work on construction phase is much more expensive than re-work on planning stage. And we seem to be frequently reminded: good planning with bad execution generates most-likely better results than poor planning with good execution.

But how often that we appreciate in performance appraisal for those already delivering 'good planning' (no execution stage yet) as compared to those already delivering some execution results?

Note: I am trying to be back on blogging -- reviewing/finalizing some unfinished write-ups, including this entry ...

Going Green with IT

Last night, I was having dinner with friends and visiting colleagues from Center of the International Cooperation for Computerization (CICC), Tokyo, Japan. Having friendly talked about good past time and state of the art IT development in some Asia Pacific countries, we came to a chat about energy conservation. Some offices in Japan set the aircon to an unbeliveable 28%C to conserve energy! The buzzword is now cool-biz - no tie, no suit in the office so that your business activities would demand less (electrical) energy to consume.

It seems that energy conservation has been becoming very serious matters for the business community in Japan. Mr. Yutaka Ikeda, GM Planning & Coordination, then handed over to us a 5-page paper from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry - METI (whom CICI report to) : Green IT Initiative in Japan. This whitepaper is quite neat, addressing a framework to halving global (CO2) emissions by 2050. As a follow up of Kyoto Protocol and Heiligendamn Summit, Japan establishes US$ 10 billion fund to support developing countires with Cool Eart Partnership program, and will be investing US$ 30 billion in R & D in the environment and energy sectors over the next 5 years.

As developing countries are becoming more industrialized and the world is moving toward more information-intensive society, the need for both energy and IT are growing fast. Electricity consumption of IT devices is estimated to grow 5-fold in 2025 than that of today, as the whitepaper reports. The efforts are then directed toward two ultimate goals: minimizing energy consumption by IT use and maximizing contribution of IT to energy efficiency.

Radically going green for IT is still posing some challenges for some to take bold actions, yet opportunity are widely open. Replacing reliable IT infrastructure today with new stuffs just for going green is of great concerns. Nevertheless, there are now available to offer an array of green IT solution: wind-powered data centers, dynamic power management software to shut off power in semiconductor chips until it's needed,...

On the other side, effectively (strategically ?) using IT for minimizing energy consumption is quite real and can be expanded to contribute more. When things go virtual on daily busines practices, physical undertaking can be minimized to save energy. On-line net meetings and video conferencing facility saves people from travel, freeing from a chain of energy consumption for physical transportation. Intel uses heat recovery chillers, in its new development center building in Israel, to recover waste heat from data centers and other equipment to heat the building in winter and to provide hot water for the bathrooms and kitchens year-round. The system eliminates the need for energy-consuming gas or fuel-oil boilers and reduces CO2 and NO emission. Intel claims, in its Premier IT Magazine (Summer 2008), to save around US$ 235,000 annually due to reduced fuel consumption.

Green IT iniative should be fairly adopted by IT shop, especially those big ones managed in big organizations. Not only that it reduce energy consumption by and potential hazardous waste from IT equipment. It could be creatively taken into a next level of strategic function for maximixing its use for helping business to reduce pressure to environment and optimize energy efficiency. There might be some costs incurred in the beginning. Managed smartly, it could at the end contribute to the positive impact of the bottom line.

So, how green are you ? Green business shall be good business. Or as some are starting to say, green is beautiful.

Remembering the Day of Reflection

A day has lapsed since August 3. As a self-performance review, not against the annual goals, but to the journey of life, I was reminded by a sign board on the wall in the Kid's World, a school building I was visiting August 2, Saturday.

Happiness is not to get what you want, it is to enjoy what you have. Above all, it is the time that we can best utilize is the precious one - currently and for the forseeable future. How much time we have wasted in the past, standing still as the world was moving in dynamic motion. Or at best, just walking into the path as the crowd was going, ending the day as usual. Following the heart to have the one we would enjoy requires a bravery, a bold action and persistency. Whatever it is that we want to pursue.

It is a simple realization, yet sometimes still catch us off-guard, that we could not change the past. How often that we "visioning" to have a different course of direction of our past journey ? It's gone. Today shall be made better than yesterday. Each day is providing an opportunity for us to create a masterpriece of our own. We frequently get it passed by without doing nothing worthwhile. We sure know the changes we need to make to give path to our journey. It's our call to change job, career, or life in which we are stagnating. As with the Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity, to accept things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.

Another day would have passed by. Need to have encouragement, to get a kick-off for a right path to the future. Many of the past might have been regretted by now. It's time for a better look into the future. As English novelist, George Eliot, said, "It's never too late to be what you might have been".

Pursuing to get what you want is a journey of minds, enjoying the ones we have is a state of heart. Happy birthday!

Cost, Credibility, and Open Innovation

Innovation seems to be a mantra for a business survival, paving the path for prosperous future. In business, it's not just about technology nor something merely new. It's about positive change leading to increased productivity and business value.

Some put it that innovation sources out from creativity and, in proceeding with the implementation, involves some risks. As risk taking is in this equation, an undertaking that could put a business into liability, those launching a (radical) innovative change shall first earn credibility. As such, it would get management trust and proper funding to put it in place.

In this regard, it's interesting to read one CIO - those position responsible for IT for the business - shared his thoughts in a magazine (forgot the name and publication) about the role. First, it should become a Cheap Information Officer to build the credibility before functioning fully as a really Chief Information Officer as it's supposed to be. Once it gets all in order and serve the business purpose, you could then tranform into Chief Innovation Officer.

I have been, to some extent, seeing this in some organizations. It gone well for some. On another case at worst, it should have catiously been managed: some :innovation" initiatives went thru unchallenged, with fancy technology introduced, the chnages that sometimes be well understood to relate to building a landmark for the chief. A personal image building that incurred some hidden costs to the business.

The lanscape of innovation is now changing. And it changes very fast. Previously (and it is still now for some), innovation is a managed proprietary initiative (R & D, or even sacred activities for some) conducted largely inside the organization. Nowdays, it gets connect beyond corporate walls: the new face of innovation involving people outside from suppliers, customers, independent inventors, and university labs.

Internet technology, Web 2.0, and the need for best utlizing all creative talents available, more flexible work environemnt gave birth to Open Innovation unimagnibale before: collaborate inside-out and co-create product and services borderless and in real time. There would always be a lot more smarter people in the world outside the wall of corporate offices.

The game has been playing a lot more now. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, is a living and continually expanding global reference work. Wikinomics, abook written by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, becomes a new phenomena on how mass collaboration changes everything. A success story of Canada-based Goldcorp Inc., in finding more gold deposits after collaborating with outside experts by openning up their proprietary geological data for sharing. In March 2000, the "Goldcorp Challenge" was launched with a total of US$ 575,000 in prize money available to participants with the best methods and estimates.

Check out at Innocentive, Inc., where the world innovates: an Open Innovation community to earn money while solving some of the toughest problems facing the world today. Online marketplace with challenges to solve in a wide variety of disciplines, from Business and Entrepreneurship to Engineering and Life Sciences: awards from $5,000 to $1,000,000. Challenges are posted by corporations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Many others are available to tap and utilize.

Henry William Chesbrough in Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology, addresses that companies can no longer afford to rely entirely on their own ideas to advance their business, nor can they restrict their innovations to a single path to market.

What is CIO now ? Get the business to collaborate and craft a way to innovate by best utilizing outside experts.

Investing in Talent Management

I can not stop questioning myself whenever it comes to recruitment interview for getting new hires. Admitedly, we often did not invest enough time to get things really well prepared, most likely rely on our HR colleagues to get stuffs arranged. They get to the one called Behavorial Event Interview, said by some to have a high accuracy to explore candidates' comptency, potentials, and to analyse the gap.

First thing first, we shall know what we want. It's not just a position title, or job description at best. What kind of specific qualities we are looking for to go into our workforce to translate into a business success. It is a highly skilled techies ready for a single contribution type of job ? or a generalist with consulting background at ease to speak with the language of business ? This is on top of specific disciplines being on hire - be it IT, Finance, Facility Engineer,..etc. Interesting enough, a famous study by McKinsey for The War for Talent, highlighted that most companies don't really know what they want. They must find out, and quickly, or their recruiting programs will be flawed before they even begin.

War for Talent

Talent management , emerged in 1990s and continues to be adopted, refers to the process of developing and integrating new workers, developing and keeping current workers and attracting highly skilled workers to work for your company. The War for Talent, based on a research study in 1998 about 77 companies from a variety of industries, remains relevance until today and is a good base reference. Even for companies where the dominant strategy is to spot talent early and train it within, the study suggests considering regularly hiring senior executives from outside. Is it a failure of internal development pipeline ? No, it suggests to view it as a way to accommodate rapid growth, refresh the gene pool, and calibrate the internal talent standard.

Better talent is worth fighting for. On recruitment process, most big companies still are in passive mode: run thru vacancy ads in newspapers, confidently expect that best talent outside would be attracted to appy to the big names. I doubt it work quite well. At the interview moments of having candidates of this type, I was always wondering if there were still many better talented people outside that would not give a damn to apply to a newspaper ads. I believe so and we are adressing it with our HR to reach beyond. Some companies are spotting great talent by constanttly looking around - competitiors, suppliers, customers.. and even the military!.

Rewarded Accountability

While HR is tasked to oversee broad spectrum of workforce and talent managment, the accountability shall be extended to line managers to develop, develop, and develop their people. Recruitment is the start of the talent management pipeline. We offten do it occassionally. It is very rare to see that bonus is tied in with managers' skill on managing people. Even ability to recruit talented new people goes unrewarded. Probably, we shall take lessons learned from the member-get-member marketing scheme. Some headhunters, to some extent, put it into practice to get people for their clients.

A book by William Poundstone, How Would You Move Mount Fuji ? , provides some insights on Microsoft's role in changing interview practice. The hiring focuses on the future tense, accepting rather than resisting the "job candidate as blank slate". Hire for what people can do rather than what they've done.

Future Investment, Worth Some Disruptions

So we ought to get well prepared for the prime time - dedicated time for recruitment interview. Moving along, building organization capability with structured people development. Putting good talent beyond his/her current domain and reach, as part of managed job assignments, could certainly be a very effective development. There is nothing worse than assuming a job that is in degradation of our experience and abilities.

On our sphere of influence, we tried to put job rotation, people movement into performance metrics. The implementtaion is still posing challenges to some leaders. Managers are most of the time still worried that moving people around is not worth the disruption. Well, we got to have a little pain to breed overall benefit for the whole organization success.

A little disruption that oscillate the organization to a new height of performance level into the future is worth investing.

Performance Indicators - Missing the Key

As the saying goes, "what gets measured, gets done", we have instutionalized a number of measuremens and mechanism to keep track on stuffs with the business operations. Good, but beware that we might loose sight of the real purpose.

In a breakfast with a colleague manager of mine a few days ago, he was appreciative about how much lot of data that we have been collecting in day-to-day operations. People do follow procedures to get the data and information expected from them. Yet, he complained, how little analysis that our guys are doing with those data. If they managed to spend some time doing some analysis, there could be a lot of improvements with many activities be done differently with more effictive and efficient.

As we measure things, we would like to track those contributing to the "success factors". Stemming out from organizations' Vision-Mission, Stretegic Goals, and Objectives comes CSF - critical success factor. It then is further quantified into KPI - Key Performance Indicators, supposed to be the selected few that we shall focus on for a prticular business domain to breed expected success. In practice, I often found that it's too many details to measure and review in a given time that business leader could be distracted, lacking the information focus. The key is lost deep in the the ocean of oprational information metrics.

One of our guys was struggling to collect data and figure out KPI for the IT shop that he should submit to a regulatory body. It consists of 10 category of the so-called KPI with each containing 3-4 items to measure. Overall, it deals with 30 to 40 metrics that we called key performance indicators! And there are more than 10 completely-different companies (and at corporation level, be comptetitot to each other), oil and gas, that the IT shop shall submit this KPI to the IT dept of a regulatory execution body that monitor oil and gas companies. While the idea is 'noble' to have a meaningful collection of metrics to compare and benchmark, the number of KPI is too much to a non operating body to challenge the information for any strategic decision making.

To stay on top, to possibly make any necessary strategic direction, I suppose that 3 (three) top categories are enough to start with: Cost Performance, Value Creation and Realization, and Synergy and Collaboration. With 2-3 items for each category, the energy can be directed to the focus of guiding the proper IT investment and leveraging it across for the benfeit of all. As such, it would not interfere with details of business operation of each competing company. Still, the regulatory body, repressenting the host government as the major stake holders, could still stay on control.

Unfortunately (fortunately ?), I was somehow get involved in the process - although a bit late coming into the game. It was too late to re-direct the whole things. or probably, it's just better the stay the course. Just make sure that we do not just collect all data possible without a clear path forward to act on them. The end in mind shall be then - "compare and decide", not just "review and store".

A similar reminder from an articel in HBR (Harvard Business Review), Stop Making Plans, Start Making Decisions. Debate and Decide, instead of just Review and Approve. And remembering Pareto, get focus to the vital few, as not to miss the key in trivial many.