People who are empowered to take risks & fail more than once aren’t organisational pariahs, but they’re often damaged goods In the television industry, a creative team can produce several pilots between hits, and there’s hardly a peep. But in most other industries, such tolerance is rare indeed. Sure, you hear about companies where teams who have failed at some innovative effort or another get thrown a big party, the message from management being, “We don’t punish our risk-takers – we celebrate them!” But with every additional disappointment in an organisation, the empowerment glow starts to fade, and very few companies continue to empower unsuccessful risk-takers – except, that is, to empower them to look for work elsewhere as soon as possible.
Empowerment is less likely to happen in big companies than small, which is exactly backward from the way it should be MBAs constantly say they plan to opt out of the corporate world because big companies will stifle their ideas, while small ones will “empower” them to make high-impact decisions right away. They’ve got a point. Big companies tend to be risk-averse, while small ones and in particular start-ups – short on resources, formality and time – tend to unleash every brain.
How ironic! Because it would take a mighty large missed bet to bring a multi-billion enterprise to its knees, while one relatively small miscalculated risk can destroy a million-dollar operation. Indeed, that’s why we often say that the worst thing a big company can do is manage its size. It should use it, and the best way we know for a big company to use its size is empower more people to take more swings.
Our sense is that Google is still enjoying the fruits of its innovation, and kudos to the company’s leadership for that. In fact, kudos to every company that truly encourages its people to make tough decisions and take risks – and especially to those companies who are straight with their employees about how empowerment really works.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
Empowerment is less likely to happen in big companies than small, which is exactly backward from the way it should be MBAs constantly say they plan to opt out of the corporate world because big companies will stifle their ideas, while small ones will “empower” them to make high-impact decisions right away. They’ve got a point. Big companies tend to be risk-averse, while small ones and in particular start-ups – short on resources, formality and time – tend to unleash every brain.
How ironic! Because it would take a mighty large missed bet to bring a multi-billion enterprise to its knees, while one relatively small miscalculated risk can destroy a million-dollar operation. Indeed, that’s why we often say that the worst thing a big company can do is manage its size. It should use it, and the best way we know for a big company to use its size is empower more people to take more swings.
Our sense is that Google is still enjoying the fruits of its innovation, and kudos to the company’s leadership for that. In fact, kudos to every company that truly encourages its people to make tough decisions and take risks – and especially to those companies who are straight with their employees about how empowerment really works.
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
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seeks to address Muslim extremism. Who else but the collection of states with the broadest mandate, most members, and loftiest goals could tackle this perversion of civilised society and threat to world order? So, when I was hired in January 2006 for a project to devise a United Nations response to the so-called clash of civilisations, it seemed to be a pretty worthy way to consider this challenge on a global scale. At the urging of the prime ministers of Spain and Turkey, the then Secretary-General of United Nations, Kofi Annan established the Alliance of Civilisations with the primary goal of identifying the roots of the divide between Western and Islamic societies and, ultimately, to find ways to curb religious violence.
gradually waking up to the realisation that they might finally lose their so-called long term competitive edge in the short term itself. This loss is primarily because of the Middle-East’s thorough incapability in encouraging youths to take up higher education and in boosting their entrepreneurial spirits in the new age era.
that sweet correlation – however much I personally might want to the contrary – does not apply to car purchases. And probably, this is the reason why many women, especially in India, are not seen driving cars [Of course metros are an exception; though even in these areas, purchase patterns of women are no relative matches to those of men]. As a matter of fact, there aren’t many cars that are manufactured exclusively for women in India. And if you’re a car manufacturer, about to tempestuously experiment with a plan for the fairer sex, perish the thought Jim, women in India more often than not take the back seat!
and marketing spends significantly. For instance, HUL increased its spending by almost 30%, and Britannia Industries Ltd. went up by 26.82%. N. V. Sivakumar, ED, Consumer & Industrial Products & Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) India says, “FMCG majors have been embarking upon increased print and TV campaigns in an effort to differentiate products, create brand awareness and increase brand recall.” Companies like Godrej are in fact doing it to the point of compromising on bottom lines in the near term. The most interesting case recently is that of GCPL, which increased its advertising spends by 44.65% on a y-o-y basis (it roped in Hrithik Roshan as brand ambassador for Cinthol), even as it recorded a y-o-y fall of 4.21% in net PAT for quarter-ended June 2008.
which are imprinted on the minds of every politically active Israeli. The first was a poster displaying the faces of two Israeli soldiers, captured by Hezbollah fighters during the Israel’s disastrous campaign of Lebanon in 2006; with Olmert proclaiming, “Thy children shall come again to their own border” in somewhat prophetic gesture. The second is a front page photo on Jerusalem Post with a visibly ashen Olmert puffing a cigar after the first round of interrogations related to graft charges. In a way, these pictures sum up his turbulent career too. Therefore, in the last few months, the incidence of an abortive end to his career was not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’. Noted political expert from Israel, Gideon Doron told B&E, “For him, it was getting difficult to dispense his duties. Even if the graft charges are baseless, he’ll have to fight it out till eternity. You simply can't rule after you lose your base of legitimacy.”
selling Indian drug, is banned in that country!” Uh, alright, that was a bad joke. But seriously, recently Pakistan banned a proposal for importing 400 medicine brands from India as Indian drugs are 10 times cheaper than those manufactured in Pakistan by the same MNCs. Local entrepreneurs assert that the suggested imports would threaten the employments of over one million people, spoil annual exports worth more than $120 million and compromise the availability of medicines during emergencies.
other reasons I shall explain below, market participants have remained, while not exuberantly bullish, so at least complacent and optimistic about an economic and corporate profit recovery in the second half of the year and in 2009. According to a recent survey by Barron’s, institutional investors are heavily leaning toward the positive side. 50% of the respondents were either “very bullish” (7%) or “bullish” (43%) about the US stock market whereas only 12% of respondents were “bearish” (nobody was “very bearish”).
bid for a 51% stake in South Africa’s largest telecom player, MTN at $21.7/share, implying a fair price of $20.7 billion (and a premium of 20% higher to MTN’s shareholders). A $50 billion dream-deal (in-principle a Bharti-controlled structure as decided on May 26, 2008) was in the making. Two weeks later, the dream has literally become “sour grapes”! Surely, Bharti has done more than just read BCG’s July 2007 report that proved “how M&As valued beyond $1 million destroy twice as much value”! So, what’s there in the secret cellar that urged Bharti to back out?
anguish that can be caused by an image of a dying rhino, its horn hacked off, it is perhaps the reassuring words of a man called MC Malakar, the chief conservator of forests (wildlife), Assam. Hounded by the public and Press alike, he has decided to go on the offensive. “What makes you even think that the gene pool of rhinos in Assam may be unsafe?” he shoots back, even before one can finish a question on whether the rhino is safe, given the department’s efforts to take it to the 3,000 mark by the year 2020, as stated in the Indian Rhino Vision 2020 plan. The tirade continues: “At a meeting recently, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) demanded that I agree that we had failed in protecting the rhino. Why should I? Hasn’t the population of rhinos gone to over 2,000 at Kaziranga from a few dozens at the turn of the 19th century?”
headed into a recession? (Rob Chiuch, Toronto, Canada)